Hey everybody. This is my first fanfiction I've posted in like five or six years, but I hope you enjoy! I very much appreciate comments, thanks.
P.S. This is NOT A SLASH or anything like it. Sorry, I'm not much of a fan.
The door slammed after the tawny owl. Walburga was livid, her heavy eyes a light with a discerning madness as she marched through her home, chest swelled and mouth taut. A young boy at the end of the hallway dropped his gaze and immediately stepped back towards the wall to let his mother fling herself around the corner. He was watching the floor beneath his feet with a twitch of a smile playing around the edges of his mouth, and he turned up his eyes to watch his mother as she seemed the fly up the stairway, cloak sprawling like a bat's wings behind her.
She didn't seem to notice the edges and corners as she glided, kicking the house elf Kreacher out of her way without missing a step. After she had disappeared from sight, the boy crept up the stairwell and sat himself at the beginning of the second stair case, close enough to hear his brother, and closer by far to hear his mother shriek. The house elf, though sporting a welting bruise mumbled a bit to himself as he passed downstairs, though even he seemed to be in a better mood then his usual miserably dim and compliant attitude.
He knew Regulus's older brother had committed it upon itself.
Regulus sat stiff, fearing for the one creak of the floorboard to give him away as his mother rapped hard on a doorway above his head.
"No one's home, come back later!"
There was a crack and a snap, and Regulus broke into a full, satisfied smile after ducking as a door was flung down the staircase and collided with the desk leaning up against wall, a hint of his mother's magic slithering along its edges. Wood splintered but the boy didn't dare cover his head for missing what he had anxiously waited for for months.
The thud and crash of the door echoed back into the open room.
"That was my door," Sirius pouted from his bed. He sat with a magazine propped open on his lap, undisturbed by the figure of his mother in the doorway. Even her hair seemed to bristle, her face contorted as, around her, she was greeted by the glow of red and gold banners. There was a distinct cast of light from the banners that set the posters of stock still Muggle girls and motorcycles in a yellow or red tinge.
A letter was crunched in her fist, thick parchment with the heavy seal of the Ministry weighing it down. Sirius's eyes narrowed, but he didn't do anything as his mother's voice exploded and echoed down the hall.
"You-You-You BLOOD TRAITOR! You INCONSOLABLE WRETCHED MUGGLE LOVING-"
Regulus bobbed his head, music to his ears as screams drifted down from the landing above.
Trussed up in a stiff black shirt and silk robes, a handsome young man with dark features and a lingering look of disdain across his face sat in the corner of the festivities, averting his eyes and glaring at the corner. He had slung himself over the arms of the chair, his back to the majority of the crowd and his head lulled to the side, resting.
A blonde man, no older then twenty, walked past, sporting a fashioned cane with the head of a serpent fastened onto it. He lingered in the aurora of the handsome man, and laughed with a scathing glance backwards here and there. On his arm was Narcissa, whom seemed determined to keep the same incandescent smile smeared across her face. She too would make as to glance at the young man whenever her eyes strayed within his vicinity, taughtingly giggling at her cousin, as if it would have stung him.
After neither could coax even the faintest reaction with their haughty Muggle jokes and scathing laughter, the young couple descended upon a different group and began to emphasize the entwined hands between them.
Narcissa, her beautiful face smooth and unconcerned, nodded vainly to her sister as she passed her, but didn't offer a word, as Lucius had begun to whisper something to her in her ear. Andromeda grimaced and pushed past the two through the crowded hallway. She paused at the sight of the young man in the chair and crossed her arms.
"Sirius," she said stiffly. Sirius turned his head and smiled. He threw his legs back from over the side to sit normally, making as if to get up, but paused. "You moron, what did you do now?"
Sirius sighed, exasperated, and fell back into the chair.
"It wasn't what I did-"
"It's always about what you do, Sirius, everyone's talking about it. And look at your head, no one but your mother-."
"They're probably all mixed up about it," Sirius insisted half heartedly, leaning his head into his hand to avoid looking at Andromeda. The bump on his head had grown a sickish green color since Walburga refused to let anyone heal it.
"I don't think so. I've heard you did magic outside of school! Got a warning from the Ministry and everything. What, do you have a death wish?"
"Hey, I was just making sure my room stayed my room, alright?" Sirius insisted. He threw his legs over the side once more, and muttered darkly, "Sick of coming home and having to redecorate my room… Freakin snakes..."
"You're lucky you even have a room at this rate- I wouldn't be surprised if Aunt Walburga moved you into the broom closet." Sirius muttered something under his breath.
"Come on, Sirius," Andromeda sighed. "The first time you've been home for the winter holidays and you're causing all this trouble. Just look on the bright side; I don't just have Uncle to talk to at the Christmas party now, right?" Sirius grunted.
"Wouldn't even be here if she hadn't fucking threatened the headmaster," he continued to mutter to himself. Andromeda scowled.
"Fine, be a stick in the mud, stay here, mope the whole time, don't go and talk to anyone, I don't give a damn!" She turned on her heel to leave.
"Yeah, and I want to make small talk with everyone who'd much rather just talk behind my back on what I did this time!" he shouted after her. She ignored him. "Uncle sent a letter, he can't make it this year!" She disappeared into the crowd.
Rolling his eyes, he settled his shoulders deeper into the armchair, trying to avoid looking at the snakes carved out on their edges. The letters in his pocket were no doubt getting squished, but Sirius didn't dare to take them out here. Letters from James, Peter, and Remus had arrived that morning; only by basically tackling the owl before it entered the kitchen was Sirius able to secure his friend's Christmas wishes. The family owl, Athena, was a little flustered and disheveled after that, but the action went unnoticed by the rest of the family, unsuspicious as to why she now nipped after Sirius's fingers whenever they went anywhere near her.
He hadn't even been able to send them anything.
The door to the room creaked open, the sound carrying over the soft lull of small talk. Sick of people, Sirius continued to finger the letters, sorely tempted to just open one then and there. Behind him, people had struck up a conversation with the new arrivals.
A familiar voice caused Sirius to pause and twist around in his chair. He would have sprung up and sung to the heavens, but his looking up seemed to catch enough attention from the new arrival; Severus Snape's pale face washed of any remaining blood, and a deep, hateful grimace fell like a shadow beneath his hooked nose.
Dun, dun, duuuun. What will happen next? No body knows-
Well, that's lie, since I know.
To let you guys know, this story only has three chapters (unless I edit it differently, in which case I'll have lied to you again). Once more, comments appreciated, even if it's all hate spam. I'm all about communication, my friend! ;) Thanks!
Oh, final note: Do you guys prefer smaller chapters or large honking huge ones like this? Let me know, since I personally like the longer ones myself.
And I don't own ANY of HP world or its many inferences and subplot lines. Hullah!