Disclaimer: Now really, would I be writing on a fan fiction site if I owned it?

Author's Note: Okay, I've been sitting on this idea for quite some time, so figured I should just write it. I love AU stories so I'm really excited about this. Some warnings: This is RLSB slash and it's a ghost story of sorts, so if you get scared easily or just think ghost stories are corny, don't read it.

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Sirius didn't know how much longer he could stay in this infernal car. They had been driving for what seemed to him to be an eternity. The most eventful thing that had happened was his father almost hitting a raccoon making his mother shriek, but besides this, the monotony of it all made Sirius want to shriek himself. It's funny, with nothing to do, the most trivial annoyances seemed to keep boiling his blood beneath his skin, making him in danger of exploding. His brother, Regulus, had his ipod turned up much too loud, the low shriek of metal music buzzing in Sirius' ears, and occasionally cracking his gum. His mother drumming her manicured nails on her armrest, looking out haughtily at the scenery. And as for his father, well, he was only animated when he was drunk, and then he was only verbally abusive. Sirius hated his family; they didn't give a good goddamn about anyone but themselves.

His brother was a spoiled brat who sucked up to his parents to get what he wanted (the ipod for instance), his mother was anything but maternal but could shop like the apocalypse was nigh, and his father was interested in nothing more than money and his career. This was perhaps why Sirius found it so odd that his father had decided to abandon his law firm in Boston for a more rural area of Massachusetts, but his father said they needed lawyers for an energy project, and were willing to pay big bucks for them. After this explanation, Sirius did not find his father's decision odd whatsoever.

Sirius had loved his family once. After all, they were all he had. But over the years, Sirius began to realize who these people actually were, and when he did, they became like strangers. They were all strangers to each other, really.

When Sirius' father, Orion Black, had graduated from Harvard Law School, his parents had more or less set up an arranged marriage with his mother, Rose Smeltings. The Smeltings, like the Blacks, were very old, very rich Massachusetts families. They couldn't let their children marry commoners! So Orion and Rose were married, and from what Sirius could tell, it was not a happy marriage at all. He doubted, in fact, that his parents had had sex for any other purpose than for children, and was aware of their many affairs. When he was young, he had accidentally run in on his mother with his violin teacher. Needless to say, he had quit violin that very same day. He had never caught his father with anyone, though when he came home at night, Sirius could smell a faint flowery scent radiating from his person, a perfume that did not belong to Mrs. Black. His brother seemed to be blissfully unaware, however, of their parents' affairs. This could be due simply to his lack of caring about anyone but himself, or his being consumed in violent video games, or his one pack a day and the pot that he smoked with his friends on the weekends, or perhaps, a combination of all three. In addition to this, Regulus idolized his father, and aspired to be every bit as corrupt, uncaring, and filthy rich as him. Sirius wouldn't be surprised one bit if Regulus got a bigger inheritance than him; Orion made it no secret that Regulus was the better son.

The rest of Sirius' relatives were equally, if not more, superficial. If he had thought his parents were cold, they were nothing compared to his grandparents. When he visited his grandparents in the Hamptons during holidays and vacations, they fussed almost lovingly over Regulus, while scoffing at Sirius. "Giving your parents more trouble with that tongue of yours boy?! If you want your inheritance, you had better stop with these radical ideas and find more suitable friends!" his grandmother said to him almost every time. Sirius was quite sure if Regulus dressed and acted the way he normally did, his grandparents wouldn't be any happier with him than they were with Sirius. Regulus, though mediocre at best when it came to academics, was cunning in the ways of society, and knew just how to act around upper class adults. The conniving little prick.

When around people like that, Sirius felt trapped in his own skin. He always felt afraid that his prim and proper façade would crack and his true self would seep out from its ruins, his soul in all its naked glory on a pedestal, judgmental and objectifying eyes burning his flesh. He knew this fear was irrational, as he put on a very good show of being snooty at business parties and family affairs, but he couldn't quite put it to the back of his mind. It was always threatening to ruin him with the slightest slip-up.

When in the company of these people, Sirius had to hide half of his personality. Though he liked all of these things equally, he listened to classical music over rock music, wore khakis instead of jeans, button-downs instead of t-shirts, and a sports coat instead of his favorite leather jacket. This Sirius didn't mind so much. But when forced to be in the company of Clarissa Worthington, whom his parents had been planning for Sirius to marry since he was in diapers, he wanted to scream after the first two minutes.

Clarissa, like Regulus, was very proper around high-class people, but a downright bitch when you got to know her. She was a neo-conservative (though a highly hypocritical one), prejudiced against anyone different from herself, and thought she owned the world because daddy was a CEO. But the worst part by far was that every time they were together, Clarissa attempted to seduce him and offered up her virginity (though he highly doubted she was still in possession of that). She even went so far as to blatantly ask if he wanted to bang her, though after a minute of her tongue in his ear, all Sirius wanted to bang was his head against the wall. It definitely didn't help that he was not at all attracted to women. Yes, Sirius Black was a homosexual.

All of his other so-called flaws seemed to pale in comparison to this one. It was, perhaps, the primary source of all his self-consciousness around his parents' family and friends. He had tried so hard his entire life to change his orientation, but it was all in vain. No matter how hard he tried, he was still gayer than Elton John in a pink dress. Though it had taken most of his life, Sirius had finally come to terms with who he was. His junior year of high school, he had even acquired a secret boyfriend, Joe, but they decided they were better off friends as they didn't seem to have much romantic chemistry. Sirius was quite sad when he had to leave Joe and all his other friends behind in Boston to come to this stupid little town where he knew no one. Speaking of which…

"We're here," his father grumbled from the front seat. Sure enough, Sirius looked out his window just in time to catch a glimpse of a sign that said Welcome to Wellington in big bold letters. After a few more miles, they pulled up to a large wrought-iron gate. When his father got out to open it, Sirius felt his jaw drop. The house, or rather manor, was enormous. It was formidable, yet beautiful, perched atop a gentle sloping green hill, forest surrounding it, a big red barn barely visible behind it. Admiring it, Sirius wondered if the move might not be so bad after all.

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Author's Note: I truly have no idea if there really is a town called Wellington in MA, I just made it up. If I didn't cover something, or you have a question, I will be more than happy to clear things up. Sorry there wasn't more story in this chapter, I mostly just wanted to cover the background info for now, so there was less to go over when the plot progresses. I promise it will get more exciting. Thanks for reading, and please, please, please review! They make my day!