Chapter One
Happy Families
"Bellatrix can come to stay here temporarily if it is absolutely necessary, your husband is foolish to have landed himself a cell in Azkaban, foolish." His mother scolded her sister, Walburga Black was a low tempered, impatient woman who only had eyes for bloodlines, and the colours of emerald and silver. Sirius never belonged here, his mother openly referred to what a mistake he was, staining their reputation, as she would say. "I'm sure Regulus and Sirius would be happy with her company, she will arrive here tomorrow by Floo?" Sirius stared at her, pacing up and down the corridor while her sister sat politely on a wooden chair, silent except for when directly affronted, she nodded in response to Walburga's question. "Very well." His mother nodded, still shaking her head as if too disapprove of her own decision. "If this is how it will be, It could be that your husband will be going exactly the same way mine has gone." She warned her sister before motioning her to the door. Nodding silently, she walked out of the door, Sirius sighed, it was almost a relief to have someone else here, someone his mother could direct her negative energy at rather than himself. Sirius tore his gaze away from his mother's face and turned to walk back to his bedroom.
He shut the door quietly behind him and looked around his room. Red and gold seemed to glint from every angle, hanging's and posters were stuck to nearly every inch of the wall, covering up the black wallpaper that had been stuck on them ever since Sirius was a boy, everything stuck up was involved somehow with his house at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Gryffindor. He strolled over to his bed and sat on the blood red cotton sheets, messed up due to him not making his bed that morning, ignoring his mother's constant moans and complaints, ignorance usually got the best of Sirius Black.
"Have you seen my wand?" Regulus's deep voice came from the other side of the door before he came strolling in, his face a mask of clear annoyance, rolling his eyes as he walked in, obviously noticing the increase of red and gold decorations, Sirius grinned at him then shook his head in response to his question.
Sirius shrugged innocently. "Nope. You can go away now." He said, lying back on his bed and placing his hands behind his head, perfectly at ease. His brother may be older than him but Sirius was not scared of him, he knew that Regulus would not hurt his brother, he possessed just that little piece of true heart that their mother didn't. Placing aside Regulus's threats and empty words, he really did have no need to be afraid of his older brother, he was compassionate enough not to really damage family, he knew better than that.
His older brother grunted and walked out of the room, attempting feebly to slam the door behind him, Sirius almost laughed, looked to the left at the door that Regulus had just walked out of second before. At the corner of his eye, he caught glimpse of four young boys, waving at the camera. A smile spread easily across his features as he picked up the picture of him and his friends at school, it was a comfort to him, knowing in a mere amount of weeks, he would be reunited with them. He stared at the photo, recognising each and every feature of his three best friends. His eyes first scanned the face of Remus Lupin, he wore a friendly smile, his shoulder length sandy coloured hair a little scruffier than usual, Sirius always thought his eyes seemed to hold much more wisdom than they should do at the age of sixteen. He looked right of the boy and saw a much shorter, scruffy looking teenager, Peter Pettigrew, he was slightly round and his hair was half the length of Remus's. Then his eyes rested on his best friend out of the three, James Potter. Grinning, with his arm slouched lazily around Sirius's shoulder, his glasses a little wonky and his jet black hair untidy, as usual, Sirius laughed a little, typical James.
The four of them had a nickname of the Marauders since their third year at Hogwarts, the nickname represented their mischievousness, they each had their own name. Himself, Sirius, was Padfoot, James was Prongs, Peter was Wormtail and Remus was called Moony. Each name had an individual meaning, as each person had their individual meaning in the group. James was in charge of making up plans, Sirius himself usually thought up the cunning side of the plan in which to get away with it, Wormtail usually agreed if it was a good plan and reassured us it would work while Lupin was mainly the peace keeper of the group, stopping us from doing anything stupid and keeping control of all of them in the group. Together, they made the perfect team, Sirius couldn't imagine them being apart, except for the summer's of course. If it weren't for the Owl network, Sirius would find it very difficult to be apart from his three best friends, mostly James admittedly. Their letter's between them were enough to keep him sane for the time being but James had mentioned something about him going over to stay at his and his parents house, though no more details had been mentioned, Sirius was deeply hoping that his best friend had not forgotten about this mentioned trip, he was anticipating it a lot.
"Sirius!" His mother called from outside the door, as he put back the pictures and stopped reminiscing over his and his friends memories. "Clean your bedroom, your cousin is coming to stay here for the rest of the school holidays, her father has been arrested," She stopped talking abruptly as she came into his room. Her face seemed to redden with anger and Sirius realised that this was the first time she had come into his room since his return, therefore she had not seen his new style of decorating. She ground her teeth and looked to her youngest son, her stare ice cold. Sirius raised his eyebrows at her and she took another step into his room. Her hand moved quicker than he could of expected as she made to tear a huge Gryffindor banner of the wall. His grin widened as she attempted once more, it seemed she could not get it off the wall. Sirius congratulated himself silently for putting a spell on all of his wall decorations so that they could never come of of his wall.
"What is this?" She snarled, looking round, her eyes widening as she noticed pictures of half naked muggle girls washing cars and such, it was evident that they were muggles as the pictures were not moving like they did in the Wizarding world. "Well?!" She pushed, her voice raising as he did not answer her earlier question. "What do you have to say for yourself?" This attitude was not surprising.
Sirius shrugged for the second time in the last five minutes. "Go Gryffindor?" He replied lazily, looking her straight in the eye as her nostrils flared with her emotion, her cheeks were going red. Walburga strolled with anger in her step over to where he sat and grabbed the front of his robes, her fist clenching around the material and pulled him closer to her. He struggled a little against her grip, but knew it was no good, he was no match for her when it came to strength.
"What do you call this? You stain our bloodlines with your disloyalty to your family and yet you continue trying to outline your 'individuality'!" She shouted in his face, her breath cold against his skin. Her fist tightened and she pulled him even closer. "You do not belong in this family! You are an embarrassment to our family! I spit in the face of Gryffindor's!" Then his mother, for the first time in his life, literally spit in his face. She pushed him back and released his robes and stormed out of his bedroom, leaving him there alone, thinking of what had just happened.
With ferocity burning fresh inside him, he wiped the back of his hand across his face and grabbed the nearest quil and piece of ink splattered parchment and wrote;
Dear Prongs,
I'm sick of it here! I'm sorry for the short notice and stuff, and I know this is going to sound really rude, but can I come stay with you and your folks for the rest of the holidays? I can't be here any more, my mother just... I'll tell you when I see you, but can you please reply as soon as possible? I'm desperate.
Padfoot.
Sirius folded the letter, just as by sheer luck, his owl Pepper came flying to the window sill. He tied up the letter, almost being unsuccessful with his shaking hands, but he managed in the end to do it. He handed the letter to Pepper, who flew straight back where he came from, he should be landing on James's window in less than an hour, Sirius strode back to his bed and hung his head. What had he done to deserve this? Surely, for being his own person, he did not deserve this type of treatment? His own mother had practically disowned him, what would become of their relationship? It was like he was not a son to her, rather a different boy who did not fit in, who she found on her door step, which she was forced to accept, forced, not wanted.
"Surprise." A high, smooth voice murmured from behind him, her grin widened as she saw his eyes widen in true surprise.
His cousin, Bellatrix Black, had, it seemed, arrived a night early.