Author's Note: Written for …
AU Battle Competition. Prompts: Squib!AU, yellow
Teach Me
Sirius always suspected there was something wrong with him. It was in the way his father ignored him sometimes, how everyone stopped whispering when he entered the room, and how Regulus always got whatever he wanted.
When his brother's accidental magic became an everyday subject at the dinner table, Sirius knew what was wrong: he'd never shown any signs of having magic. When he was really little, his parents and grandparents and aunt and uncle would take turns trying to bring it out of him. Even his older cousins had given it a shot. After he turned seven they seemed to give up by him.
By the time he was ten, he was confident he wouldn't be going to Hogwarts. His cousin Kaleb was a year older and Sirius watched enviously as he became the center of attention at all the family gatherings, showing off his new wand and going on about how excited he was.
Strangely, despite his son going off to school soon, Alphard always seemed to make time for Sirius, leaving the main party to hunt his nephew down in his bedroom or attic and spend hours talking with him.
"What happens if I don't go to Hogwarts?" Sirius whispered fearfully to him one night as Alphard pointed out the constellation the boy's name had come from.
"You're a wizard, Sirius, you're going to-"
"But what if I'm not?" he insisted.
"Well, it's hardly the end of the world, is it? There's plenty of room for squibs in this world."
"Mum doesn't think so," Sirius sighed.
Alphard remembered that as being the night he made up his mind once and for all about his family and what had to be done to save his nephew from a lifetime of persecution, it would just take a year before he could do anything about it.
:-:
"I'm not signing anything!"
Sirius cringed at his mother's screech from where he sat at the top of the stairs, listening in to her conversation. He hadn't heard her so angry since he broke her favorite frame several months before. She almost never raised her voice to anyone else, but his father was still at work and she would never yell at Regulus. That only left Alphard in the house.
"You don't have much of a choice, Walburga. We both know he's out of time. I waited a year, I bided my time. Noreen and I had the papers drawn up after Kaleb's going away party. I still had hope for the boy – you and Orion condemned him years ago."
"That's not true, he's my son!"
"For how much longer, another month just to be sure? Then you'll dump him at a muggle orphanage or leave him on the street. At least give him a chance, let Noreen and I take him."
There was silence downstairs and Sirius felt his stomach flutter. He had suspected for a long time what would happen when he became too old to go to Hogwarts, but hearing it from his uncle's mouth was another thing entirely. He couldn't imagine what would happen if his parents left him in a world he knew nothing about.
He thought he heard the shuffling of papers before his mother spoke again.
"I want him out of the house tonight. There's no sense in prolonging this."
Sirius didn't bother hiding when he heard the footsteps getting closer. Alphard gave him a sad little smile when he found him.
"You heard?" The boy nodded. "Come on, let's pack you a bag."
Sirius led him to his bedroom and stood at the door while the man scurried around, filling a suitcase with clothes and a few books and a photograph he had on his nightstand of him and Regulus when they were little.
"Can I say goodbye?" he asked, staring at the loose floorboard where he kept his stash of candy.
"I don't think that's a good idea," Alphard told him, putting a hand on his shoulder. "But you'll see Regulus again. I promise."
"What about Mum and Dad?" He already knew the answer, but he wanted to see what Alphard would say.
"It wouldn't be best, Sirius. Maybe someday, but not today."
The eleven-year-old didn't argue the point. He wasn't even sure what he would say to his Mum. He let Alphard take his hand and apparate him to his new home.
:-:
"We'll go shopping this weekend, dear," Aunt Noreen told him as she Alphard made up the spare bed in Kaleb's room for Sirius.
"I don't need anything," he protested.
"Don't be silly, you can't live with so few clothes. And you didn't bring any of your things." She sent a glare her husband's way.
"I didn't have anything I liked." He crossed to the window and pulled back the ugly yellow drapes to sneak a peek outside at the quiet suburban street he now lived on. He already liked this house better than the one he'd grown up in. It was smaller and he'd have to share with his cousin, but it felt different.
"What am I going to do now?" he found himself asking.
He'd been wondering for a long time what would happen once everyone realized what he was, and he had yet to come to any answers. His whole childhood had been a series of "When you go to school you'll understand" type responses, but he didn't have Hogwarts to fall back on anymore. He was either going to have to navigate a world of magic without the thing itself, or go and learn how to survive in the world of muggles.
Alphard and Noreen paused in their work and his uncle knelt before him, forcing the boy to look at him.
"We're going to teach you something very important."
"What's that?" he asked, curious as to what he could possibly be taught without magic.
His uncle smiled, sensing his frustration. "We're going to teach you how to live."