DISCLAIMER! THE PLOT IS MINE BUT THAT'S ALL! DISCLAIMER!
Rose smuggle the crumpled up paper from the kitchen into her old stained apron; cleaning up as she went along. Her face still in excruciating pain from her husbands blow early that morning. She could now hear him snoring loudly on the living room sofa, her daughter Petunia was in the street with her friend Olivia. A meek girl that pandered to Petunia's every need. One Rose had finished cleaning every last surface of the kitchen she walked calmly past the living room, not wanting to wake Peter or arouse suspicion from her daughter. She climbed the staircase with equal care, 'swift and silent'; her mantra for the past 15 years.
"Lily?" she whispered. "Lily?" repeating herself.
"Mummy?" the little girl appeared from the bathroom, staring wide eyed at her mother.
"Follow me." Lily obeyed sticking close to her mother as they entered Lily's bedroom. "This letter is for you" Rose said having scanned the envelope before depositing it on the table for her husband to read this morning. "I know what it says will sound strange, but you must believe me. Its all real and its your only hope to escape this place." Lily was confused by her mothers urgent tone.
"Okay" Lily assured her mum. Rose handed her youngest daughter the crumpled paper and watched excitedly as the little girl smoothed the creases out. Silence fell as Lily read, the tension in the air so thick it could be cut by a knife. "This is silly mum" she sighed, ready to crumple up the paper again.
Rose tore the paper from her daughters hands and clasped the girl in an iron grip. "You will listen to me"-desperation clear in her voice, Lily had never been so scared in her life-"You will listen to me, this is real. What that letter says is real. I know it is. I can't tell you how, for your own safety. But believe when I say if you do not leave soon THIS!"-Rose pointed to the large bruise over her eye-"WILL HAPPEN TO YOU...okay?"
"Okay mum, I believe you." It was true, Lily had never believed something so fervently in her entire life. "B-b-b-but what about you?" her fear turning to disbelief, turning to sheer panic in an instant.
"I'll be okay, someone needs to stay with your sister. She wouldn't survive a week without me" Rose tried to smile it off. But the truth was, if she could have, if Petunia had been willing to. Rose would have left a long time ago. She would not leave a child-even one such like Petunia-to fend for herself with that brute of a man.
"Mum? You can't do this. Come with me. Runaway" Lily pleaded, but how could she tell her youngest daughter that she had tried that before. That's how Lily had come to be, because Rose had tried to runaway with a man that promised her the world.
"My place is here Lily, yours isn't. You don't belong here." Those words stabbed Lily deep in her heart, she always felt like she didn't belong. But she had always thought that her mum was the one person that could relate to her. "You leave in two weeks, I'll tell your father once you've gone. I WON'T have him stopping you" a sudden charge of love swamped the resentment that had started to pool inside Lily. The consequences for this would be great.
Darkness didn't creep in the Black family manor, it entrapped every point of light and swallowed the day. Sirius lay curled up on his bed, in his room on the third floor. He had been lying down on the soft mattress since his parents had dismissed him. Hogwarts. Hogwarts. His salvation, his hope, his new beginning. But in the forefront of his mind he couldn't help but imagine the fates of the people he was leaving behind. Silvia, his mother for all intensive purposes and Regulus, his little brother. So far Regulus had escaped the wrath of their mother and father, but when Sirius left there would only be Silvia left to protect him.
What would Regulus become without Sirius' guidance for an entire year? Their mother was a very charismatic women when she wanted to be and could entrap her victim in ideology that could send them down a road to which they may not return. Sirius had been a flaw in her perfect family, a free thinker-thanks to Silvia-born to question his mother's rule.
Silvia. Poor Silvia. She was the kindness that had shaped him, the mother he had never had. Looking towards his future he could see the freedom he had longed for. He knew Silvia wanted nothing more then to see him escape this place, they had waited 11 years for this day, for this letter to arrive. They had made it. Only two more weeks and he would be free. Freedom. But it came with a cost.
A slight knock on his bedroom door let Sirius know the whole house was asleep and that Silvia was here. The door opened silently, the tiniest shuffle of footsteps only audible to Sirius walked steadily across the hardwood floor. "Sirius" Silvia sighed as she flung her arms around her sweet little boy.
"Silvia" he replied, clutching her so tight with his weak arms.
"I'm so proud of you, two weeks angel. Two weeks and you'll be free from here" she smiled so brightly Sirius swore her teeth were brighter then moon beams. "Your mother has ordered me to give you extra food, she said 'Black boy's are strong and that's exactly how he should look', I think she might even let you outside" Silvia almost giggled with excitement, remembering to clasp her hand over her mouth before the sound could escape.
The news didn't have the desired effect on the young boy. He went limp in her arms and sadness swept through him like a great wave. "Sirius? Angel what's wrong?"
"What about you?" he sniffed helplessly. His Grey storm cloud eyes burning with tears.
"Me?" she asked surprised. "Sirius, I was born here. I was born into this house. I will live here and I will die here. Its hard truth for you to hear." She smoothed his hair soothingly as the tears fell like rain from his eyes. "Do you know something?" He lifted his head in question. "When you were born, I was there. When you took your first step, I was there. When you said your first word, I was there. When you cried through the night, I was there. I will ALWAYS be here. When your away at school I want you to go wild, have fun. Experience life, do it for the both of us. No matter what your parents say, they can't hurt you. Once you leave this house, they won't be able to ever touch you again. I promise you." Silvia's eyes filled with tears of happiness, holding Sirius's hands in her own as they sat next to each other on the bed.
"But what about you?" he repeated his previous question.
"Me? I'll be fine. They need me. They're aren't many willing wizards left ready to bind themselves to a family for all eternity. Without me, they lose a servant and that all important status it gives them." She was right of course, to the Black family 'status' was everything. Sirius' eyes turned dark again. "Don't you worry about your brother. I'll keep an eye on him and protect him when I can. He's not much like you, but he's still your brother." Sirius nodded accepting what she had to say.
"Two weeks?" Sirius said. "Better start packing" he smiled.
