My stab at well...the noble and most ancient house of black....first
chapter and more to come if i get reveiws! This is an MXPX song that I
thought could relate to Sirius and his running away thing.......
Strong words is all I can think to say to you So much has changed and I'm not getting through Faced with the possibility of growing old alone And backed with a head that's made of stone
The black cloud follows me Wherever I go If I ignore it for another day Then maybe it'll go away
I'm running away I'm running away I don't care where I go or where I stay
The question can't be answered so easily Deep in it all we can't seem to agree Waking up the bad taste won't leave me alone I'm like a man out of time A man without a home
The black cloud follows me Wherever I go If I ignore it for another day Then maybe it'll go away
I'm running away I'm running away I don't care where I go or where I stay
It's always hard to admit When I've been wrong all along It's always hard to admit I'm always wrong
**************************************************************************** ***************
Silence in London was a seldom thing. Almost always there were the roaring of motors, the barking of dogs, the slamming of doors, and the lights of the enormous city made it impossible to see the night sky above. One could only see them if they traveled outside the city, or if they traveled to a small muggle environment set on the outskirts of the city. This settlement was one of a calm nature; there was hardly any loud noises past ten at night, the houses were perfectly lined up, and no chaos when on at all. The sloping hill was lined with small, identical houses that ranged from colors of dark blue to light pink. On every house there were four windows, two on the bottom floor, two on the top.
Seeing as it was eleven at night, and the blackness of the hour engulfed the neighborhood, no one was outside save one person swiftly walking towards number 11, Grimmauld Place. The charcoal eyes of the stranger gazed on ahead of him, but now and then cast a sideways glance towards the houses beside him. His dark and handsome face was set to a grim expression as his long legs marched forwards. It seemed that he had only been walking for a few seconds when he had reached the doors of number 11. Instead of entering the house in front of him, he moved to the right slightly and faced the wall. The man cast a wary look around him to see if anyone was watching, then he drew from his pocket a long, wooden stick that glowed slightly at the tip. A wand.
The expression of his full face hadn't changed a bit as an extra house seemed to grow from the small corners of the other houses. This house was colored a pale grey, with large windows that ran vertically for about three feet before stopping before a black door. The man stepped hurriedly up stone steps before stopping by the door, and gripping the Serpent where the doorknob should be. Once again he gave behind him a long glance before tapping his wand to the Serpent once. His facial expression changed slightly as the clanking of locks and irons on the other side of the door creaked loudly. With a slight frown on his face, the man crosses his arms impatiently for the door to stop unlocking. The moment it stopped there appeared a crack between the door and the framing. It was open.
Immediately the man stepped into the house and slammed the door behind his back indifferently. A sick grin started forming at the sides of his mouth; he was home again.
His feet moved rhythmically down the narrow hallway lined with a blood red carpet as his glance moved up towards the portraits which ranged from three feet wide and high to taking up the whole area between the wall floor and the ceiling. High arched ceilings made the hallway especially magnificent, and a twisted diamond chandelier hung from the wooden timbers of the ceiling. To many it had taken the appearance of a serpent also, so that's what they called it now.
The man now turned his head back towards the lighted hallway to continue his walk. Every now and then large oak doors would appear on the sides of the halls, leading to more complex rooms and passage ways. But at the end of the hallway was a door that surpassed the others by a great amount. The high, arched, oak doors were lined with a dark green trim of wood, with a thin layer of gold smashed in between the wood and the trim. His olive hand reached up and jerked the Serpent doorknob with an enormous amount of effort, and pulled it open enough for him to slip through without being squashed.
Instantly his ears ached from the exceedingly loud noise coming from all ends and crannies of the dining hall. People were bustling around, carrying things, shouting at one another, and some were just sitting at the large mahogany table staring off into space. The grin on his tight face grew more as he spotted a young, thin girl that sat at the end of the table.
He approached her carefully, as not to scare her. He knew what she did when she was scared, and to have a murder here tonight would not be the best thing. Her long, black hair was weaved into two french braids at either side of her head; she was moving her head slightly, making the braids swing side to side every few seconds. Her small, thin hands were gripped around a quill that hung above a sheet of parchment. With another step, the man made a loud stomp on purpose, and she whipped her head around anxiously.
" Andrew...." She muttered as she eyed him up and down with her wide, black eyes. Her small, straight nose wrinkled slightly as if smelling something, then she turned back to the parchment that had only blotches of ink where answers should be.
This caused the man, Andrew, to laugh whole heartidly, but the laugh turned out to be what seemed like a bark. He couldn't help that; all the men in the Black family semmed to have been cursed with that laugh.
" I feel loved now, Bella." His voice snided very obviously, making the young girl turn around again. There was a dead expression on her face, but slowly, the edges of the girl's attractive face glinted with a smirk. She dropped her quill out of her hands and turned her thin body around completely. Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
" Were you supposed to feel loved?" With that the petite girl stood and quickly scambered off towards the main hallway.
**
Bella's thin but muscular legs pounded on the carpet as she ran from the dining hall down the main hallway. Every few seconds a blur of a door opening and her family members coming out would appear, but she paid no heed to it. Her bright black eyes shifted towards one particular double door. The fourth door on the right from the entrance door. She stopped dead infront of the door and she stared at it for a few seconds before gripped the Serpent doorhandle and pulled with all her strength.
It opened without much of a hassle. Her thin body slipped through before the door slammed behind her. A cackle of a laugh rung out randomly as she continued to trample up the mohagany staircase. She passed two girls who were whispering under thier breath, but loud enough for the girl to hear it.
" That's Bella.....she's a bit mental so pay no attention to her."
" Don't worry I won't."
A large frown played on Bella's face as she scampered on, racing herself up the stairs. With every landing she would stop to stare at the people she knew, and tens of others that she had no clue of who they were. Now and then some would stop her to ask her how she was doing, but she would just smile in an obviously fake way and continue up to her bedroom.
Soon her legs started to ache, so she slowed down the pace of her running. She needed to rest. Running up these flights of stairs without a rest could cause most a small heart attack, but Bella had been running them since she was old enough to run. She sat herself down with a small thud on the landing between the fourth floor and the third. With her head in her small hands, she rocked back and forth, humming to herself as she waited for her heart rate to return to normal.
She turned to leave, but banged her head with another family member. Her wide eyes looked up to see her cousin, Diana. She bit her lip furiously as she pushed past the girl in a middrift top with a grunt and continued up the stairs. She ran past one door which stated in big black letters " PARENTAL ADVISORY" and under it in slightly smaller letters it stated" UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU ENTER".
Bella snicked slightly as she neared the door. One of the only doors which didn't have a serpent for a doorknob. No, her cousin had taken it off, disgusted with it. With a sing-song voice she broke out when she was without centimeters of the door.
" Siri! Come out and play with Bella!"
There was a soft rumble as Bella listened to her cousin fall out of bed and slam to the floor. A snicker started under her breath, and grew louder as she heard footsteps nearing the door. Her eyebrows raised, grin still on her face, as her cousin opened the door.
There stood a boy staring back at Bella. If one hadn't looked very closely they would have thought that the two were twins. Shaggy, black hair messed about his face, tossled by the sleep he had indulged in before his cousin's shreiking. His handsome, but extremely tired looking face had an annoyed expression on it, and his black eyes focused on Bella vaguely. She could tell he had been sleeping, because her cousin always slept in the same thing. He stood there in his boxers, shirtless, and looking quite perturbed. Yes, that was the Sirius she knew.
He was about a foot taller than her, and looked a bit lanky, but not so much that he looked out of porportion. This was the cousin girls fawned over at school...Sirius. He stared down at her still and wrinkled his nose slightly while a small frown was still plastered upon his face.
" Why'd you wake me up...?" His voice was groggy and slurred. Bella looked up at him with her big, black eyes, still grinning from ear to ear. She was a strange one, that was for sure. She was one of the only cousin's that hadn't gone completely mental and dark, but Sirius was sure she was headed that way.
" It's only twelve....." He was surprised to hear that she had maraculously pulled off a rather innocent voice. With a roll of his bloodshot eyes, he turned back around and slammed the door in Bella's face. He could hear her squeal loudly as the door came close to her face, then he grinned as his ears caught hold of the usual cursing of Bellatrix.
" Damn bastard won't play with me......" He heard her mutter softly then stomp down the stairs to her own bedroom. A quick sigh of relief passed over him as soon as she heard her go, then he fell backwards onto his low bed.
His mischevious black eyes drooped slightly as sleep tugged him over. Over his head the constellations he had stuck on his dark blue ceiling glowed in the dark. He had been so proud of those stars when he had managed to stick them all up correctly on the ceiling to show his constellation. The Dogstar. Around it where others that he fancied looking at, but in the center was his star. He even wrote Sirius-Dogstar, under the star.
Sirius' glance steered over to his bedside table, which was higher than the bed itself. It was a dark wooden chest with two big drawers below the surface. On the surface were papers meshed together inside thick books labeled HISTORY OF MAGIC or 100 HYSTERICAL HEXES. Beside the books were an array of photographs which were moving slowly. The first picture was one of he and a boy who looked quite like him. The other boy was lighter, had shorter, messier hair, black-rimmed glasses, and hazel eyes. James Potter. James and himself had been best friends since the day they met when they were nine years old. James' family and Sirius' family had never gotten along; they had decided that it was because of the Black's belief that the dark side was the right one, whereas the Potter's hated the Dark Arts. But James and Sirius had never argued over that, seeing as Sirius hated his own family. James' family had treated him better than his own ever had. The two were arm in arm, grinning cunningly at the camera and winking every now and then.
The next picture was one of four boys- James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Remus looked better than he usually had, and was laughing in hysterics at Peter. Remus' short, sandy brown hair glinted in the lights, and his chocolate colored eyes glistened with tears from laughing so hard. Peter was the oddball of the picture. Three lean, reasonably good looking boys, and then Peter Petigrew. Peter had dark brown hair that was slicked back from his chubby face. His squinty blue eyes darted around nervously as they had for quite some time. His eyes stood out also; the three others had dark eyes, then Peter who had ice blue eyes. All four of them were laughing as James told a joke about Serverus Snape, their arch-enemy.
Beside that picture lay one that Sirius loved to look at. He was in it yet again, with his arms around a beautiful girl. Every one who saw this photo thought that he and the girl were going at it, but only he and the Marauders knew that she was like a sister to him. She had black hair like Sirius', but hers shimmered in the light, reflecting her beauty. Her skin was reasonably lighter than his, and her arms were wrapped around Sirius' neck. Her radiant blue eyes were looking at him with a giggle in her smile. She was thinner than he was, and was on his lap. He remembered they had taken that photo as a joke. Venna was such a pretty girl, but Sirius had never liked her like that. Remus on the other hand....he did. Venna's best friend, Lily Evans, was James' beloved. He had loved her since their third year, but she still detested him.
How many times had James asked her out? The same lines over and over again. The girl was goregous, Sirius had to admit that. Especially now that her light freckles had faded from her blemish-free face and her long once firey red hair had died down to an auburn color. Sirius wished that they would just get together; he wouldn't have to stand James' whining of how badly he wanted her, and they would both be happy. James would be happy with one girl, unlike Sirius.
Sirius had never stuck with one girl for more than nine months. The Marauders loved to tease him about the incident of an hour long relationship in which the couples lips were locked the entire time. What was her name? Melanie. She was a ditzy Hufflepuff to whom Sirius had been attracted to instantly. Remus said Sirius' weakness was his rash and sudden actions....Sirius fought hard against the statement, but in the end found it true. Forty other girls had floated in and out of Sirius' lovelife from the time he was eleven. Celeste Warbeck had been another story completely.
The tall, skinny but shapely girl had transfered from Beaubatox in thier fourth year, and she was anything but ordinary. Her voice was something. Celeste had moved for her singing career, which was blossoming rapidly. Sirius could still picture the forest green eyes that were often covered in extreme colored eyeshadows and black eyeliner. She always wore ripped clothes; fashionably ripped of course. He remembered her hair the most. It always smelled like some tropical fruit Sirius could get high on it smelled so good. The long, straight, dark brown tendrils of hair would run in and out of Celeste's attractive face. Their relationship had been the longest he had had in his lifetime. Nine wonderful months. She broke up with him over the summer of their sixth year.....this summer. He didn't know how he'd face her when school started up again.
Now he was stuck in this horrid house that entrapped him terribly. With a grunt he turned over in his bed so that he was laying on his stomach. He could try to run. He had been trying to run away from his family since he met his best friends at Hogwarts. The Potter's had made sure he knew that he could come stay with them if his family gave him any trouble. His family had been giving him trouble since he was born; he just didn't fit in here. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only sane one here. Bella was most definantly not sane, Andrew was his abusive older cousin who somehow was friends with Remus' older cousin Owen. But Owen would do anything but abuse Remus. Julia, Remus' mum, had even offered to let Sirius stay after meeting his mother at the train station about a year ago. He could remember that look on Julia's face. It was obvious that they hadn't liked each other.
He had to get out of here. Every day of this summer had been pure torture, and every night the insomniac pyshcopathe otherwise known as Bellatrix rapped on his door to bother him. Andrew would get mad at him regularly and hit him with something hard. Sirius had bruises all over his back from Andrew hitting him over the back with anything that would hurt. Andrew's insane girlfriend in serious need of a shrink would laugh her horrible laugh while Andrew hit him. The boy's teeth gritted at the thought of Hilary.
His mind raced for a way to escape without being caught by the tens of people who lived here and knew that making him stay here would change him. That was their point, why they kept him here. They hoped that someday he would convert to being a normal Black. An evil Black. He had tried to sneak out at the wee hours of the morning, but people like Bella would catch him.
He could try his window...his window led to an alley that he had been scared of ever since he was nine. He didn't want to go down that alley, but then again, he needed to get out. He'd do it tonight. After dinner which happened between six and seven. He'd gather the stuff he needed in a sack then run. He didn't know where he'd run. He wouldn't be coming back. No more ceiling that he loved, no more low comfy bed. Sirius frowned slightly at he thought of this, but then another thought occurred. No more Bella, no more disturbances, no more Andrew or Hilary. No more of his mother.
Sirius leapt off the bed and jerked a small bag from his closet. What to pack? Firstly, where would he go?
" James...." The Potter's house was just outside London, about an hour away. He could run that much. The Grim could last a whole lot more than that. Yes, he'd run to the Potter's who would invite him to stay with him. Hopefully even live there. After all, he didn't intent to return to number 12 Grimmauld Place ever again. His dark hands grabbed every peice of clothing in sight along with the pictures on his bed-side table, the books and papers, a jacket, and some shoes.
" Is that all?" He asked to himself outloud eyeing the room. Just then his black eyes reached the last drawer in his bedside table. How could he have forgotten? The map! The mirror! He rushed over to the drawer and thrusted it open. Sirius gathered the map and the mirror along with other Marauder items and shoved them in his bag before turning towards his bed. Yes, tomorrow he would run as far away as possible from the living hell he had endured for the past sixteen years.
Strong words is all I can think to say to you So much has changed and I'm not getting through Faced with the possibility of growing old alone And backed with a head that's made of stone
The black cloud follows me Wherever I go If I ignore it for another day Then maybe it'll go away
I'm running away I'm running away I don't care where I go or where I stay
The question can't be answered so easily Deep in it all we can't seem to agree Waking up the bad taste won't leave me alone I'm like a man out of time A man without a home
The black cloud follows me Wherever I go If I ignore it for another day Then maybe it'll go away
I'm running away I'm running away I don't care where I go or where I stay
It's always hard to admit When I've been wrong all along It's always hard to admit I'm always wrong
**************************************************************************** ***************
Silence in London was a seldom thing. Almost always there were the roaring of motors, the barking of dogs, the slamming of doors, and the lights of the enormous city made it impossible to see the night sky above. One could only see them if they traveled outside the city, or if they traveled to a small muggle environment set on the outskirts of the city. This settlement was one of a calm nature; there was hardly any loud noises past ten at night, the houses were perfectly lined up, and no chaos when on at all. The sloping hill was lined with small, identical houses that ranged from colors of dark blue to light pink. On every house there were four windows, two on the bottom floor, two on the top.
Seeing as it was eleven at night, and the blackness of the hour engulfed the neighborhood, no one was outside save one person swiftly walking towards number 11, Grimmauld Place. The charcoal eyes of the stranger gazed on ahead of him, but now and then cast a sideways glance towards the houses beside him. His dark and handsome face was set to a grim expression as his long legs marched forwards. It seemed that he had only been walking for a few seconds when he had reached the doors of number 11. Instead of entering the house in front of him, he moved to the right slightly and faced the wall. The man cast a wary look around him to see if anyone was watching, then he drew from his pocket a long, wooden stick that glowed slightly at the tip. A wand.
The expression of his full face hadn't changed a bit as an extra house seemed to grow from the small corners of the other houses. This house was colored a pale grey, with large windows that ran vertically for about three feet before stopping before a black door. The man stepped hurriedly up stone steps before stopping by the door, and gripping the Serpent where the doorknob should be. Once again he gave behind him a long glance before tapping his wand to the Serpent once. His facial expression changed slightly as the clanking of locks and irons on the other side of the door creaked loudly. With a slight frown on his face, the man crosses his arms impatiently for the door to stop unlocking. The moment it stopped there appeared a crack between the door and the framing. It was open.
Immediately the man stepped into the house and slammed the door behind his back indifferently. A sick grin started forming at the sides of his mouth; he was home again.
His feet moved rhythmically down the narrow hallway lined with a blood red carpet as his glance moved up towards the portraits which ranged from three feet wide and high to taking up the whole area between the wall floor and the ceiling. High arched ceilings made the hallway especially magnificent, and a twisted diamond chandelier hung from the wooden timbers of the ceiling. To many it had taken the appearance of a serpent also, so that's what they called it now.
The man now turned his head back towards the lighted hallway to continue his walk. Every now and then large oak doors would appear on the sides of the halls, leading to more complex rooms and passage ways. But at the end of the hallway was a door that surpassed the others by a great amount. The high, arched, oak doors were lined with a dark green trim of wood, with a thin layer of gold smashed in between the wood and the trim. His olive hand reached up and jerked the Serpent doorknob with an enormous amount of effort, and pulled it open enough for him to slip through without being squashed.
Instantly his ears ached from the exceedingly loud noise coming from all ends and crannies of the dining hall. People were bustling around, carrying things, shouting at one another, and some were just sitting at the large mahogany table staring off into space. The grin on his tight face grew more as he spotted a young, thin girl that sat at the end of the table.
He approached her carefully, as not to scare her. He knew what she did when she was scared, and to have a murder here tonight would not be the best thing. Her long, black hair was weaved into two french braids at either side of her head; she was moving her head slightly, making the braids swing side to side every few seconds. Her small, thin hands were gripped around a quill that hung above a sheet of parchment. With another step, the man made a loud stomp on purpose, and she whipped her head around anxiously.
" Andrew...." She muttered as she eyed him up and down with her wide, black eyes. Her small, straight nose wrinkled slightly as if smelling something, then she turned back to the parchment that had only blotches of ink where answers should be.
This caused the man, Andrew, to laugh whole heartidly, but the laugh turned out to be what seemed like a bark. He couldn't help that; all the men in the Black family semmed to have been cursed with that laugh.
" I feel loved now, Bella." His voice snided very obviously, making the young girl turn around again. There was a dead expression on her face, but slowly, the edges of the girl's attractive face glinted with a smirk. She dropped her quill out of her hands and turned her thin body around completely. Her voice dripped with sarcasm.
" Were you supposed to feel loved?" With that the petite girl stood and quickly scambered off towards the main hallway.
**
Bella's thin but muscular legs pounded on the carpet as she ran from the dining hall down the main hallway. Every few seconds a blur of a door opening and her family members coming out would appear, but she paid no heed to it. Her bright black eyes shifted towards one particular double door. The fourth door on the right from the entrance door. She stopped dead infront of the door and she stared at it for a few seconds before gripped the Serpent doorhandle and pulled with all her strength.
It opened without much of a hassle. Her thin body slipped through before the door slammed behind her. A cackle of a laugh rung out randomly as she continued to trample up the mohagany staircase. She passed two girls who were whispering under thier breath, but loud enough for the girl to hear it.
" That's Bella.....she's a bit mental so pay no attention to her."
" Don't worry I won't."
A large frown played on Bella's face as she scampered on, racing herself up the stairs. With every landing she would stop to stare at the people she knew, and tens of others that she had no clue of who they were. Now and then some would stop her to ask her how she was doing, but she would just smile in an obviously fake way and continue up to her bedroom.
Soon her legs started to ache, so she slowed down the pace of her running. She needed to rest. Running up these flights of stairs without a rest could cause most a small heart attack, but Bella had been running them since she was old enough to run. She sat herself down with a small thud on the landing between the fourth floor and the third. With her head in her small hands, she rocked back and forth, humming to herself as she waited for her heart rate to return to normal.
She turned to leave, but banged her head with another family member. Her wide eyes looked up to see her cousin, Diana. She bit her lip furiously as she pushed past the girl in a middrift top with a grunt and continued up the stairs. She ran past one door which stated in big black letters " PARENTAL ADVISORY" and under it in slightly smaller letters it stated" UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES SHOULD YOU ENTER".
Bella snicked slightly as she neared the door. One of the only doors which didn't have a serpent for a doorknob. No, her cousin had taken it off, disgusted with it. With a sing-song voice she broke out when she was without centimeters of the door.
" Siri! Come out and play with Bella!"
There was a soft rumble as Bella listened to her cousin fall out of bed and slam to the floor. A snicker started under her breath, and grew louder as she heard footsteps nearing the door. Her eyebrows raised, grin still on her face, as her cousin opened the door.
There stood a boy staring back at Bella. If one hadn't looked very closely they would have thought that the two were twins. Shaggy, black hair messed about his face, tossled by the sleep he had indulged in before his cousin's shreiking. His handsome, but extremely tired looking face had an annoyed expression on it, and his black eyes focused on Bella vaguely. She could tell he had been sleeping, because her cousin always slept in the same thing. He stood there in his boxers, shirtless, and looking quite perturbed. Yes, that was the Sirius she knew.
He was about a foot taller than her, and looked a bit lanky, but not so much that he looked out of porportion. This was the cousin girls fawned over at school...Sirius. He stared down at her still and wrinkled his nose slightly while a small frown was still plastered upon his face.
" Why'd you wake me up...?" His voice was groggy and slurred. Bella looked up at him with her big, black eyes, still grinning from ear to ear. She was a strange one, that was for sure. She was one of the only cousin's that hadn't gone completely mental and dark, but Sirius was sure she was headed that way.
" It's only twelve....." He was surprised to hear that she had maraculously pulled off a rather innocent voice. With a roll of his bloodshot eyes, he turned back around and slammed the door in Bella's face. He could hear her squeal loudly as the door came close to her face, then he grinned as his ears caught hold of the usual cursing of Bellatrix.
" Damn bastard won't play with me......" He heard her mutter softly then stomp down the stairs to her own bedroom. A quick sigh of relief passed over him as soon as she heard her go, then he fell backwards onto his low bed.
His mischevious black eyes drooped slightly as sleep tugged him over. Over his head the constellations he had stuck on his dark blue ceiling glowed in the dark. He had been so proud of those stars when he had managed to stick them all up correctly on the ceiling to show his constellation. The Dogstar. Around it where others that he fancied looking at, but in the center was his star. He even wrote Sirius-Dogstar, under the star.
Sirius' glance steered over to his bedside table, which was higher than the bed itself. It was a dark wooden chest with two big drawers below the surface. On the surface were papers meshed together inside thick books labeled HISTORY OF MAGIC or 100 HYSTERICAL HEXES. Beside the books were an array of photographs which were moving slowly. The first picture was one of he and a boy who looked quite like him. The other boy was lighter, had shorter, messier hair, black-rimmed glasses, and hazel eyes. James Potter. James and himself had been best friends since the day they met when they were nine years old. James' family and Sirius' family had never gotten along; they had decided that it was because of the Black's belief that the dark side was the right one, whereas the Potter's hated the Dark Arts. But James and Sirius had never argued over that, seeing as Sirius hated his own family. James' family had treated him better than his own ever had. The two were arm in arm, grinning cunningly at the camera and winking every now and then.
The next picture was one of four boys- James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter. Remus looked better than he usually had, and was laughing in hysterics at Peter. Remus' short, sandy brown hair glinted in the lights, and his chocolate colored eyes glistened with tears from laughing so hard. Peter was the oddball of the picture. Three lean, reasonably good looking boys, and then Peter Petigrew. Peter had dark brown hair that was slicked back from his chubby face. His squinty blue eyes darted around nervously as they had for quite some time. His eyes stood out also; the three others had dark eyes, then Peter who had ice blue eyes. All four of them were laughing as James told a joke about Serverus Snape, their arch-enemy.
Beside that picture lay one that Sirius loved to look at. He was in it yet again, with his arms around a beautiful girl. Every one who saw this photo thought that he and the girl were going at it, but only he and the Marauders knew that she was like a sister to him. She had black hair like Sirius', but hers shimmered in the light, reflecting her beauty. Her skin was reasonably lighter than his, and her arms were wrapped around Sirius' neck. Her radiant blue eyes were looking at him with a giggle in her smile. She was thinner than he was, and was on his lap. He remembered they had taken that photo as a joke. Venna was such a pretty girl, but Sirius had never liked her like that. Remus on the other hand....he did. Venna's best friend, Lily Evans, was James' beloved. He had loved her since their third year, but she still detested him.
How many times had James asked her out? The same lines over and over again. The girl was goregous, Sirius had to admit that. Especially now that her light freckles had faded from her blemish-free face and her long once firey red hair had died down to an auburn color. Sirius wished that they would just get together; he wouldn't have to stand James' whining of how badly he wanted her, and they would both be happy. James would be happy with one girl, unlike Sirius.
Sirius had never stuck with one girl for more than nine months. The Marauders loved to tease him about the incident of an hour long relationship in which the couples lips were locked the entire time. What was her name? Melanie. She was a ditzy Hufflepuff to whom Sirius had been attracted to instantly. Remus said Sirius' weakness was his rash and sudden actions....Sirius fought hard against the statement, but in the end found it true. Forty other girls had floated in and out of Sirius' lovelife from the time he was eleven. Celeste Warbeck had been another story completely.
The tall, skinny but shapely girl had transfered from Beaubatox in thier fourth year, and she was anything but ordinary. Her voice was something. Celeste had moved for her singing career, which was blossoming rapidly. Sirius could still picture the forest green eyes that were often covered in extreme colored eyeshadows and black eyeliner. She always wore ripped clothes; fashionably ripped of course. He remembered her hair the most. It always smelled like some tropical fruit Sirius could get high on it smelled so good. The long, straight, dark brown tendrils of hair would run in and out of Celeste's attractive face. Their relationship had been the longest he had had in his lifetime. Nine wonderful months. She broke up with him over the summer of their sixth year.....this summer. He didn't know how he'd face her when school started up again.
Now he was stuck in this horrid house that entrapped him terribly. With a grunt he turned over in his bed so that he was laying on his stomach. He could try to run. He had been trying to run away from his family since he met his best friends at Hogwarts. The Potter's had made sure he knew that he could come stay with them if his family gave him any trouble. His family had been giving him trouble since he was born; he just didn't fit in here. Sometimes he wondered if he was the only sane one here. Bella was most definantly not sane, Andrew was his abusive older cousin who somehow was friends with Remus' older cousin Owen. But Owen would do anything but abuse Remus. Julia, Remus' mum, had even offered to let Sirius stay after meeting his mother at the train station about a year ago. He could remember that look on Julia's face. It was obvious that they hadn't liked each other.
He had to get out of here. Every day of this summer had been pure torture, and every night the insomniac pyshcopathe otherwise known as Bellatrix rapped on his door to bother him. Andrew would get mad at him regularly and hit him with something hard. Sirius had bruises all over his back from Andrew hitting him over the back with anything that would hurt. Andrew's insane girlfriend in serious need of a shrink would laugh her horrible laugh while Andrew hit him. The boy's teeth gritted at the thought of Hilary.
His mind raced for a way to escape without being caught by the tens of people who lived here and knew that making him stay here would change him. That was their point, why they kept him here. They hoped that someday he would convert to being a normal Black. An evil Black. He had tried to sneak out at the wee hours of the morning, but people like Bella would catch him.
He could try his window...his window led to an alley that he had been scared of ever since he was nine. He didn't want to go down that alley, but then again, he needed to get out. He'd do it tonight. After dinner which happened between six and seven. He'd gather the stuff he needed in a sack then run. He didn't know where he'd run. He wouldn't be coming back. No more ceiling that he loved, no more low comfy bed. Sirius frowned slightly at he thought of this, but then another thought occurred. No more Bella, no more disturbances, no more Andrew or Hilary. No more of his mother.
Sirius leapt off the bed and jerked a small bag from his closet. What to pack? Firstly, where would he go?
" James...." The Potter's house was just outside London, about an hour away. He could run that much. The Grim could last a whole lot more than that. Yes, he'd run to the Potter's who would invite him to stay with him. Hopefully even live there. After all, he didn't intent to return to number 12 Grimmauld Place ever again. His dark hands grabbed every peice of clothing in sight along with the pictures on his bed-side table, the books and papers, a jacket, and some shoes.
" Is that all?" He asked to himself outloud eyeing the room. Just then his black eyes reached the last drawer in his bedside table. How could he have forgotten? The map! The mirror! He rushed over to the drawer and thrusted it open. Sirius gathered the map and the mirror along with other Marauder items and shoved them in his bag before turning towards his bed. Yes, tomorrow he would run as far away as possible from the living hell he had endured for the past sixteen years.