Title: Picture Perfect
Author: Rhiannon Deschain
Rating: PG 13
Summary: Sirius Black's home life seems to be a normal household from the outside- well, normal by wizarding standards. But inside the walls of Grimmauld Place, nothing is picture perfect.
Chapter 1
Narcissistic
Sirius Black laid in his room, sprawled on his bed and gazing forlornly at the ceiling, absently picking shapes out of the plasters swirls. Another fabulous day in the Most Noble and Ancient House of Black...and I would rather be mauled to death by rabid flobberworms...he thought miserably, knowing that at some point and time he was going to have to come out of his room and face the things he called his family members. Narcissistic mother (who deserved the name Narcissa more than the woman who claimed it did at times), a father who wanted nothing more then to be unperturbed by his progeny and wife, and a brother who did everything in his ability to show how he, not his elder brother, was a true Black, and how Sirius, was an abysmal shame. Something his mother, who never turned down an opportunity to show her dislike for her first born son and or his friends, leapt at the kindling, each and every time.
"Sirius! Dinner's ready, come and eat now!" a sharp voice screeched up the stairs at his room, no warmth or inviting tones in that horror.
"Oh, turn blue…Coming!" the sixteen year old murmured at first, though the later part was raised a few decibels to be sure the monstrosity otherwise called his mother heard him.
Summers seemed to last forever in this house, or at least to Sirius they did. He rarely had his friends over, as he couldn't stand his family's cold disposition to them. He could go to those friends' houses only when his parents permitted him to do so…though that didn't always hold true. He ate his dinner without speaking as much as he could manage. It seemed to go by faster when he did this. Presently, his brother was bragging about some club his friend got into. Something about Pure-Bloods, but Sirius was trying to just block the twit out. That was until his mother did what she did best, and struck a nerve.
"Oh, Regulus, how wonderful. We'll have to have him over for dinner, won't we dear?" she simpered, looking over to her husband, who merely grunted his reply.
"What about your friends, hey, Sirius?" his younger brother asked, seemingly an innocent question, but the ever present malice still lurking.
"James got in.." he barely answered, before his lower voice was killed off by his mother's sharp laugh.
"His friends? Hah, his friends, darling, are probably out...barking at the moon or something, wouldn't you say Sirius?" she said, apparently thinking the idea that Sirius had any 'well-to-do' friends most amusing.
Sirius dropped his fork onto his plate and placed his balled fists in his lap under the table. This always come up, always! She knew the Potters were a pure blood family, but she never considered them quite her league. She never really picked on him, or really Peter, but she singled Remus out like a hawk selecting a mouse for a meal. She'd picked up on him being a werewolf not but last year and felt she needed to make up for lost time. It wasn't even a full moon yet!
"Excuse me." he managed to grit out through his clenched teeth before leaving the table. His brother must have said something, but it fell on deaf ears.
He didn't stop until he was upstairs in his room, then he slammed the door shut and leaned his back against it. A heavy sigh escaped him in efforts to calm down and ran his hands roughly through his shaggy black hair. Not five minutes after he bolted the door he heard a faint voice on the other side of the thick oak door.
"Master Sirius? Might Kreacher bring you your dinner?" Kreacher asked.
Sirius couldn't hold back the shudder. The house elf creeped him out, there was no other way to put it. Bring him his dinner, how quaint, but he knew his mother had already tossed out his dinner in the bin.
"Go wait on Mother, why don't you?" he replied a little more tersely then he had intended.
The message got through though, and he heard no more from the disturbing house elf. Though, for a spell, Sirius was at a total loss at what to do after cooling out. This house drove him stir crazy. Between it's eerie silence and pristine cleanliness, and his brother's constant scheming, his father's noninvolvement, and his mother's eternal berating…then, a though struck him. James!
He scrambled for a quill, and a scrap of parchment before hastily scribbling a note:
Jim,
Hope you're free a few days chap, Padfoot's gone loony. I've got to get out…meet me tomorrow at the Salty Siren, if you can. Sorry for the short notice.
Sirius
He affixed the note to Bucephelous' leg, and sent him on his way out the window. He knew the way to James' by heart now he was sure. With a small grin, Sirius flopped onto his large four poster bed, and closed his eyes. James' parents had all but fully legally adopted him since the two had met and made friends several years before. They were actually more of a 'family' than he had here at Grimmauld Place. He was told he was always welcome, but felt compelled to send warning before each time.
It didn't really matter to him at that point if he wasn't supposed to be leaving, he just knew he was going, end of story. He'd get up early, and go. No need to pack, he kept extra belongings at James' for this very reason. He wouldn't leave a note. Not like anyone here would be missing him.
Author's Note: Well, this was another little plot bunny, I kind of like it so far, and will continue…let me know if you want me to anyhow ;P Hope someone else enjoyed my sporadic little ficlet…Gawd it's been ages since I wrote…Ah, yes, I don't have a copy of Order of the Pheonix on hand, so any mistakes I make, kindly tell me so I can fix them, thanks muchly!
*Special Thanks to Trinity Day for pointing out my cannon and one blatantly dumb mistakes :D