Chapter One: Family Honour

Christmas Eve Day, 1911.

Adelaide Brown and Sirius Black would not meet for a few years yet, but it could be said that their story truly began on Adelaide's thirteenth birthday. For it was on that snowy December 24th in 1911 that an infinite amount of chance events lined up and set their lives spiralling in very different directions, which would, ultimately, intersect at precisely the right time.

[[…]]

Laidy woke with the sun, stretching her arms out above her head before leaping out of bed and sprinting down the hall to her parent's bedroom. "Mother, father, wake up, wake up!" She pounced onto their mattress, tugging on the thick comforter draped over the top of their sleepy forms. Jim mumbled something incomprehensible and rolled over onto his stomach, pulling his pillow over his head as he did so. When Laidy tried to snuggle up to her mother, Elizabeth draped an arm over her shoulders but kept her eyes closed. Laidy tried again, "Mummy, Daddy, please, please wake up!"

"All right, Laidy, all right," Jim muttered, sitting up and throwing his legs over the side of the bed. Laidy let out a squeal of excitement and launched herself on her father, enveloping him in a hug before shoving his slippers on his feet and pulling on the sleeve of his cotton pyjama shirt. "I'm up, I'm up, Laidy, I –" Jim suddenly collapsed backwards onto his pillow, impervious to his daughter's insistent pleas. "Oh, no."

"What's wrong, Jim?" Elizabeth asked, finally opening her eyes. "What is it?"

Jim groaned, "Can't you explain to Laidy about Sundays?"

"But it's not just any Sunday!" Laidy cried, indignation warring with excitement. "It's my birthday! My thirteenth birthday!"

Her mother let out an affectionate laugh and said, "Happy Birthday, sweetheart! Go downstairs and start getting ready and we'll be right down with your presents, okay?"

Nodding excitedly, Laidy scampered from the room and slid down the bannister of the stairs, landing on the balls of her feet and sprinting out the front door into the yard. She was so full of joy that she wasn't badly effected by the cold, choosing instead to focus on the fairytale beauty the snow lent to the landscape with childlike innocence. She paused only for a brief moment to pull her father's boots on over her stockings before going as fast as she dared down the slippery front path to see how far away the delivery of the morning paper was. She was only half way towards the gate when she heard the familiar bell ringing, and waved to the delivery boy as he rode past. He gave her a smile and tossed the paper to her at just the right speed for her to catch it without falling over, although she came close. Discarding the oversized boots at the door, Laidy went back in to the warm house and made her way into the breakfast room. She threw open the blinds and dropped the newspaper at her father's seat, before heading into the kitchen to make two cups of tea and arrange some bagels on a plate.

When she returned to the dining room, carrying a tray laden down with breakfast, her parents were waiting for her. There was a square white box tied with a blue bow clasped in her mother's hands.

Jim was smiling at her proudly. "Why, I can't believe she's thirteen years old."

Laidy grinned and placed the tray on the table, stepping over to her parents expectantly.

"Happy Birthday, sweetheart," Elizabeth said, passing the box over.

Laidy untied the ribbon in one swift movement and lifted the lid, revealing an exquisite choker; a rich royal blue, with a golden clasp at the back and a golden sovereign hanging from the front. She slid her hand under the sovereign and lifted it up to read the inscription; Raison d'être.

"Oh," she breathed, rich brown eyes widening in awe, "it's beautiful! Thank you!"

"Here, I'll put it on for you." Elizabeth draped the necklace over Laidy's collarbones, shifted her hair out of the way and did up the clasp. Stepping back to admire it, she fluttered a hand against her heart, "My, but it does look nice; so grown up! Won't Uncle Jack and Grandpa Trent be surprised?"

Laidy darted over to the mirror hanging above the mantel and admired her reflection proudly. Her thick, brunette hair was coming out of the plait she had put it in before bed and curling around her ears, but her cheeks had a nice pink flush to them and her heavily lashed eyes were shining nicely. The choker, she felt, made her look immediately more mature and lady like; less like a gangly, over excited child and more like a woman. "What does it mean, Raison d'être?" she asked, watching her parents reflections.

"It means 'reason for being'," Elizabeth explained, grasping her husband's hand.

Jim beamed at his daughter as she raced back to wrap her small arms around both of her parents. "Happy Birthday, little Laidy."

[[…]]

Sirius awoke to a banging on his bedroom door. Trying his best to ignore it, he rolled onto his stomach and held his pillow over the back of his head, keeping his eyes firmly shut. But whoever was on the other side of the door was insistent, for the banging didn't relent even when he threw a book at his door and yelled, "Sod off!"

"But Sirius, Mum says you have to get up now! They'll all be here soon." It was Regulus. Sirius heard him struggling with the handle, trying to make it turn. He smiled, knowing that the charm he'd placed on it wouldn't budge. "Come on, Sirius, before she sends Kreacher in."

That was enough to inspire Sirius to wrench himself out of bed and across the room. The thought of the nosy little house elf barging in to wake him annoyed him more than he cared to let on, purely because he knew that Kreacher would go running back to Walburga if he saw anything that wasn't supposed to be there, and Sirius had quite a few things stashed in his bedroom that he shouldn't have owned.

He turned the doorknob and easily pulled the door open, and Regulus nearly fell straight into him. He caught his little brother's shoulders and steadied him. "Were you pushing on the door? You know it's enchanted."

Regulus wrinkled his nose and pushed back. "You've been drinking, haven't you?"

Sirius, slightly offended at his tone, asked, "Is it that obvious?"

"You reek of fire-whiskey."

Sirius cupped a hand over his mouth and nose and breathed into it, blinking as his own breath hit his nostrils. "So I do." His tone suggested he didn't particularly care.

Regulus's eyes widened as he took in his older brother's bedraggled appearance. Sirius had fallen asleep in the clothes he'd gone out in the night before, and as such he was currently wearing his shirt, vest and trousers, but only one sock. Who knew where his jacket and the other sock had gotten to. His long, dark hair was falling in tendrils in front of his grey, half-lidded eyes. Regulus looked baby faced in comparison. "You're underage, though, you shouldn't be -"

"Reg," Sirius interrupted, his tone business-like, "If I let being underage get in the way of my fun, I'd never have any."

"Don't you worry though, about getting in trouble?" At fifteen years old, Regulus couldn't think of much that was worse than getting in trouble, particularly with their parents.

Sixteen year old Sirius, on the other hand, made it his mission to get in trouble as often as possible, be it with his parents, his school or the law. Rules were made for breaking, in his opinion. "I live for it," he said with relish.

"Boys!" The screeching sound of Walburga's voice came from the down the hall, and both boys shuddered. "Are you ready yet? The guests will be arriving soon! Make yourself presentable, Sirius!"

"And why do you not have to make yourself look presentable?" Sirius asked, gesturing at his immaculately dressed sibling. At that moment the brothers appeared quite the opposites, with Sirius half a head taller and infinitely scruffier than Regulus. They had the same eyes though, and the same strong, narrow facial structure that distinguished all the Blacks.

"Because I don't look like that," Regulus responded, punching him lightly in the arm. "You'd better hurry up, before Mum catches you."

"I'd like to see her try to catch me; she never does anything for herself anymore. She'd probably just set Kreacher on me," Sirius muttered.

Regulus laughed before setting off down the hall in the direction of their mother's voice. Sirius retreated back into his room, relocking the door behind him.

Four hours and three courses of food later, the entire House of Black was wishing that Sirius had just been left in his room to begin with. He was on his feet, Christmas desert forgotten in front of him, grey eyes narrowed, mouth twisted into a smug smirk and his wand pointed directly at his cousin Bellatrix's unblemished face.

"Another word, cousin, and I'll blast that pretty little nose right off your face." Despite the viciousness of his words, he said them in a sort of resigned, casual way; as though Bellatrix was doing something trivial, such as threatening to eat the last piece of pudding.

Bellatrix was far too ambitious to bicker over something like food, though. She knew her cousin's one weakness, and she knew just how to exploit it to her full advantage. What better time to get him in trouble than now, with the entire family here to witness his traitorous ways? She was revelling in the knowledge that everyone – the entire, extended Black family - was intently focused on them and their argument, which looked to be rapidly escalating to a duel. Her eyes gleamed maliciously as she levelled her own wand right at Sirius's chest. "I'm only speaking the truth, cousin," she drawled tauntingly, not at all threatened.

"You don't know what you're talking about," Sirius replied, almost in a snarl.

Bellatrix licked her lips and drew her bottom lip up between her pointed teeth, idly turning her wand between her fingers. "I know enough."

"Children!" Walburga was glaring at the two of them, her pale hands splayed on the table top, poised to propel her to a standing position at any moment. "Sit down, the both of you."

"But don't you want to hear what I have to say, Aunt?" Bellatrix spoke to Walburga, but kept her eyes locked on Sirius. She noted the slight twitch of the vein in his wrist. "It's quite fascinating, I assure you."

"Bellatrix, I don't think this is appropriate," Andromeda, Bellatrix's little sister – the middle of three – said imploringly. She sat beside Sirius, and had her knife clenched tightly in her hand, hovering in mid air. Sirius spared her a glance, thankful to know that she was on his side.

Bellatrix smiled at her condescendingly. "Dromeda, I'm just having a friendly chat with our dear ickle cousin. He does love school so much, don't you think he'd enjoy telling the family all about his time there?"

"Bella -" Narcissa, the youngest Black daughter, was seated beside the somewhat manic, grinning brunette and made such a contrast with her white-blonde hair and completely polished presentation as she looked imploringly up at her older sister. She wanted to avoid a scene, however justified she believed her sister's actions to be.

"Not now, Cissy," Bellatrix interrupted, not unkindly.

Narcissa fell silent, but her wide eyes flickered from her sisters to Sirius and back again, betraying her nerves. She was the only sister still at Hogwarts with Sirius, five years above him and in a different house, but Sirius had managed to make such a name for himself that there wasn't a student at Hogwarts who didn't know about him. It was she who'd incredulously explained to Bellatrix about Sirius's friendships and going ons in Gryffindor house, as she couldn't believe that they were honestly blood relatives; but now she was wondering if perhaps she shouldn't have kept the information to herself until after family Christmas.

Andromeda and Narcissa both knew what was coming, and they wondered if Bellatrix had comprehended the repercussions of her actions; then again, Bellatrix never was one for thinking things through, preferring to act on impulse. Somewhat ironically, it was a trait she shared with Sirius.

"Have you told your parents, Sirius; about you and your blood traitor friends, and all the things you get up to at school?" Bellatrix asked.

Sirius's grip on his wand tightened. "Why would my parents care about my behaviour at school? They barely care about my behaviour at home."

Orion made a grunting noise at that, but if he had wanted to say anything he was cut off by Cygnus Black, Bellatrix's father, exclaiming, "Blood traitors? They'll let anyone in to that Gryffindor house, I tell you -"

Bellatrix laughed at her father's words. "It's going to the dogs, Father."

"I'm warning you, Bella," Sirius said. His voice had lost its teasing quality now.

"What are you going to do, Sirius?" Bellatrix taunted. "Your precious little Marauder friends aren't here to back you up now -"

"Don't talk about them," Sirius snarled, his upper lip curling in disgust, revealing his pointed canines. An almost feral glint had come into his grey eyes.

"Sirius," Regulus pleaded quietly, tugging on his brother's sleeve. "Please, Sirius, don't hurt her -"

"I'm not going to hurt her, Reg," Sirius reassured him, but his tone suggested otherwise.

"Of course you're not going to hurt me," Bellatrix said calmly. "You don't have the nerve, without that mudblood Pettigrew, the half-blood Lupin, and the traitor Potter -"

"Expelliarmus!" Sirius roared, shooting the spell right at Bellatrix.

She managed to duck; the spell hit the wall behind her, burning a small patch in the wall paper that made Walburta shriek in horror. In an instant Bellatrix screamed, "Stupefy!"

Sirius dodged the spell, but immediately all of the Blacks were on their feet, wands out and aimed right at him.

"How dare you try to harm my daughter, you rotten boy!" Druella, the girls' mother, screamed, near hysterical.

"I knew that having a Gryffindor in the family was going to taint our name!" Cygnus shouted over his wife's shrieking. "Dangerous, traitorous things, thinking they know better than years of wizarding history, trying to bring in radical changes!"

Sirius's eyes roamed over his family, narrowing in disgust. "I didn't realise there was something so radical about accepting all wizards, regardless of their blood lineage."

Cygnus pointed a fat finger at his nephew. "You knew it damn well, boy, and it's not Bellatrix's fault that you're making the wrong decisions and hanging around ingrates -"

"Don't talk about my friends!" Sirius threw an errant hex at the ceiling, not aiming to hit anyone but needing to let out his frustrations. Bits of plaster came showering down and covered the remaining food in a layer of plaster dust.

Everyone flinched, with Cygnus shooting a spell at Sirius in retaliation; Sirius dodged it easily and it shattered a glass sitting on the shelf at the back of the room.

"Your friends," Walburga hissed, clearly embarrassed by her son's behaviour, "are a terrible influence. You need to spend more time with Narcissa -"

Sirius laughed at that, a loud, harsh, bark of a laugh that made Regulus stare at up at him, shocked and scared. "More time with her?" Sirius swept a hand over the three Black girls before settling on Narcissa, the only one in attendance at Hogwarts with him. "And her Slytherin cronies, like Malfor, who go around picking fights with defenceless first years and bullying everyone who disagrees with their narrow minded, backwards view of the world -"

"OUT!" The word was roared with such a ferocity that whatever Sirius had been poised to say died on his lips. He blinked at his father, whose face had gone a deep, ruddy purple with rage. "Get out of my house, boy! I will not have you dishonour this family any longer!" Orion kept his wand aimed at his eldest son, pointing with his other hand at the door.

Sirius felt a rush of emotions that he couldn't quite identify, but kept his face in a controlled, blank state. He turned slowly to see Bellatrix smirking at him triumphantly, Narcissa and Andromeda gaping, and Regulus – Regulus, trembling with fear, eyes wide. When he looked at his mother she just shook her head and pressed her lips together so tightly that they almost disappeared. "I was just planning on leaving," he said coolly.

"Sirius," Regulus said suddenly, lunging for his brother's arm. "Sirius, no, don't go; they don't mean it -" He glanced at his parents, waiting for one of them to agree, to tell Sirius that they were overreacting and to just clean up the mess and go to his room. But one look at their strained faces assured him that, this time, his brother had gone too far. His pleading became desperate. "Sirius, don't go, don't leave -"

Sirius turned around and placed a steady hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry, Reg," he said, loud enough for the entire room to hear. There was an undercurrent of tension to his words and his jaw was working tightly. "You've always been their favourite, you'll be fine without me here."

And with that he turned on his heel and stormed to his room. As he stalked down the hall he heard Druella fussing over Bellatrix, and Cygnus ranting loudly, "If I were you I would have kicked him out as soon as he was sorted into Gryffindor; no good could ever have come from that!"

Sirius's hands were shaking with rage, but he tried to keep himself composed as he shoved the few belongings he actually cared about or deemed necessary into a small rucksack – enchanted with an invisible extension charm, naturally. He kept his wand in his vest pocket, close at hand. He didn't stop by the dining room on his way to the front door, stamping deliberately loudly down the staircase to the foyer to let them know he was going.

Bellatrix's high, cruel voice echoed down the stairs, "Run off to your blood traitor friends, ickle Sirius!"

He side-stepped Regulus and Andromeda, who were waiting for him, red-faced, at the foot of the stairs.

"Sirius," the younger boy said again, even more desperate than before. "Please don't go, don't leave me -"

"I meant what I said, Regulus," Sirius told him firmly, forcing himself to meet his little brother's eyes. "You're their favourite; you'll be fine. You've always been the better son."

Regulus looked like he was trying not to cry, and Sirius wondered with amazement how he could suddenly appear so young, so very much like the little brother he used to be, who idolised Sirius and everything he did. "They love you, brother, I know they do, they've just -"

He was cut off, as a loud bang came from one of the upstairs rooms; followed by cackling laughter from his extended family and furious shouting from his mother. Walburga shrieked and hollered, "Off the family tree! No son of mine puts blood traitors before his own family! I have only one son!"

Sirius raised an eyebrow at Regulus, disguising the sick feeling rising in his stomach. "They might have, once, many, many years ago," he told his brother. "But I don't remember it."

Andromeda stepped forward, sighing heavily. "You know there are better things out there," she whispered.

Sirius nodded once. "The standard hasn't been set very high."

She gave him a small, sad smile, and squeezed his arm. "Take care, little cousin. Please write."

He turned the door handle and stepped out onto the landing, breathing in the crisp winter air. "I'll try to send you an owl, but it probably won't be until I'm settled in."

"Where are you going?" Andromeda and Regulus asked in sync.

Sirius considered for a moment before replying, "I've got a place. Don't worry about me."

Regulus lingered on the threshold of their grand old house. "Goodbye, big brother."

"Goodbye, big cousin, little brother," Sirius said, allowing himself a moment of tenderness with the only two Blacks he cared about before apparating away, erasing himself from his family permanently.


a.n. I hope you enjoy this chapter! Sirius is such a fun character to write.
Just to clarify, I'm getting all of my relative ages (eg. Narcissa being five years older than Sirius and the youngest of the three Black sisters) from the Harry Potter Wiki, because it seems to be pretty reliable.
Please let me know what you think of the story so far!