Black Dog
Sirius pulled at the collar of his new dress robes. They were too tight and stuffy, the ten year old wizard felt, but his parents had insisted on them. After all, it wasn't every day that the entire Black Family got together these days – well, all the respectable ones at least.
He forced a false smile on his face as his mother pulled him through the ballroom, towards yet another relative or other. "Aunt Cassiopeia, it's wonderful you made it," Walburga said. "How long has it been since you last saw young Sirius, the heir?"
Aunt Cassiopeia resembled a dried up prune, Sirius thought. But he remembered his manners and bowed towards his mother's aunt, who looked over her glasses to inspect him more closely.
"A little scrawny, isn't he? Are you feeding him right, Wallie?"
Sirius' mother forced a polite smile on her own face as she started talking with her, fortunately forgetting about Sirius. Today sucked, he thought. Other than he and his brother the only kids here were his three cousins but the only one in the ballroom was Bellatrix, who looked ready to kill the first person to walk up to her. Sirius had overheard two of his uncles say that Bellatrix had wanted to go to a Knights of Walpurgis rally instead, but her parents had forced her to attend the family meet-up. Reggie had disappeared a while ago, with no-one paying attention to him the little squirt had it easy. Sirius was not so lucky, he had to be shown off to everyone first.
Bored, Sirius looked around for anything else to do and finding nothing, he decided to go exploring. His mother seemed to still be busy talking with Aunt Cassiopeia, and his father was nursing a brandy with Sirius' uncle Alphard and some of the other men of the family, so he should be able to leave. It wasn't the first time he was in the house of his cousins, after all.
Sirius walked up the stairs to the first floor, where the family rooms were. The first door on his right was open and inside he saw his little brother, Reggie, sitting with his cousin Narcissa.
"Siri!" Reggie's eyes lit up as he spotted his older brother. "Cissy is showing me some wand movements, do you want to join us?"
Sirius always felt a little odd around Narcissa. She was four years older than he and in the past they had often played together, but since the previous year Narcissa had become more... girly. Both in how she acted, and how she dressed. Sirius didn't quite know how to respond to that.
"Hi, Cissy," he mumbled, looking down.
"Sirius. You're welcome to join us," Narcissa said, shooting him a small smile.
"Err... no... erm, that's okay. Maybe later?"
"Sure, later," Narcissa agreed. "Bye then."
"Yeah. Bye. Erm, I like seeing you."
"Thank you?"
"Bye." Sirius quickly stepped further down the hall, anything to get away from the open door. Why did he just say that? The next room was the parental bedroom, and he knew better than to try to enter it. Past that was Bellatrix' room, and he definitely would not enter there. The last time cousin Bella had spotted him in her room she had hexed him so badly that he had to be taken to St. Mungo's, and she hadn't even been punished for it!
At least he had one cousin who always acted normal, the middle child. Sirius opened the door to Andromeda's room without knocking and stepped inside, only to be shocked at what he found.
Andromeda was lying on her bed, bobbing her head, while a Muggle device played some music of the likes Sirius had never heard before. "What... what are you doing?" he asked.
Andromeda looked up and towards him, shocked. "Sirius? What are you doing here?"
"Just walking by... is that Muggle music? I'll tell on you!" He made to turn back for the door.
"Wait! Don't tell anyone, they'll ground me for sure! Why... why don't you try listening to it for a bit?"
Sirius scoffed. "Why would I want to listen to Muggle music? Everyone knows they're inferior to us in every single way."
"Oh yeah, kiddo? Listen to this," Andromeda walked over to the record player and adjusted the needle. "You've never heard anything like this, I swear," she said, a strange smile appearing on her face as the music swelled and the singer said:
'Hey, hey, mama, said the way you move,
Gonna make you sweat, gonna make you groove.'
Sirius was enthralled. This was definitely nothing like what they played on the Wizarding Wireless.
"Groovy, isn't it?" Andromeda sat down next to him, and for the next few minutes they listened to the record fill the room with music until it finally ended with,
'All I ask for, All I pray,
Steady Rollin' woman gonna come my way.
Need a woman gonna hold my hand
tell me no lies, make me a happy man.'
Sirius looked at his cousin wide-eyed. "What... what was that?"
Andromeda smiled as she stood up and turned the speakers down a bit. "That, little cous', was Led Zeppelin with 'Black Dog'. Aren't they they greatest?"
"Wow... yeah. This... that... that was amazing," Sirius had to agree.
"Still think Muggles are inferior to Wizards in every way?" Andromeda pressed.
"I... I guess not. Maybe? But mum and dad always say..."
"Let me guess, they are always on about how Might Makes Right and that Blood Will Tell?" she asked. Sirius nodded, and Andromeda rolled her eyes in response. "My parents are the same... and I bought into that shit, too."
Sirius suppressed a giggle at the bad word his cousin said.
"You know what changed my mind, kiddo?"
"The music?" he guessed.
"No, well, not at first anyway. No, far simpler than that... I just talked to some Muggleborns at school."
Sirius mouth dropped in shock.
"Don't look at me like that! Did you know, almost one in six students is currently a Muggleborn? Anyway, I ended up having to serve some detention in Herbology two years back, don't ask me why. Had to do it together with this Muggleborn from Hufflepuff, Teddy. We ended up talking... and you know what I found out?"
Sirius kept silent.
"'They' are just like 'us', Sirius. A wizard is a wizard no matter who his parents are. So don't believe everything your parents or the rest of our wonderful family says, they have no clue."
"I couldn't have said it better myself, dear," a new voice came from the door. Both the teenager and the pre-teen turned to it in shock at being caught, finding their uncle Alphard standing there.
"Uncle, I'm –" "We didn't –" both blurted out, only to be stopped as Alphard stepped inside, closing the door behind them.
"Don't worry, you're not in trouble. Your mother was looking for you, nephew, and I volunteered to go up to find you... only to learn to my pleasure that the next generation is turning out fine, after all."
"Uncle?" Andromeda asked, unsure.
He walked over to the record player and took up the record sleeve standing next to it. "Led Zeppelin? Excellent taste in music, Andy! Tell me... have you ever heard of 'The Who'?"
It was very different Sirius who returned home that night, his mind spinning with the realization that not only were Muggles not so bad after all, but that at least two of his family were thinking the same way. Humming the 'Black Dog' song softly to himself, he fell asleep smiling.
A/N: Written for the QLFC round 5 – Glory Days. Thanks to firefly81 for beta-ing it and to Liza for helping me brainstorm.