Chapter 2: Dinner with the Blacks

Sirius turned the tap off and got out of the shower. He wrapped a big, blue towel around his waste and started to dry his hair.

Once clean and shaved, he gathered his dress robes. He pulled on a pair of expensive black pants and buttoned up his white shirt, tucking it into his trousers. Quickly and with mastered skill, he tied his black tie into a full Windsor knot. He grabbed the elegant dress cloak off his bed and draped it around his shoulders. It was also black, but was embroidered with gold and green and the Black family emblem.

Once he was sure his family would approve of his appearance, he headed downstairs.

He entered the kitchen and found his younger brother, Regulus, sitting at the counter in his dark grey dress robes.

Sirius and Regulus were almost identical in looks, except the latter was a few inches shorter and had cold blue eyes that were, more often than not, devoid of all emotion.

Sirius didn't mind his brother quite as much as the rest of his family. He was a Slytherin and followed in both his parents' footsteps in most aspects, but Sirius couldn't help feel that there was more to Regulus than met the eye.

The ancient clock that hung above the sink read six thirty. The dinner guests would be arriving in half an hour.


Eva did up all the ties and zips of her blood red dress. It was a beautiful dress and she looked absolutely stunning in it. However, she did not like it. This was for the simple reason that it was a family heirloom. It had been her great, great grandmother's, and had been passed down through the women in her family to her.

She put on her make up in front of her bathroom mirror and pulled her hair into a loose bun. She grabbed her black dress cloak off its hanger and pulled it over her shoulders.

She checked her watch. It read 6.50pm. Her family was going to Floo to the dinner at exactly seven. She made her way halfheartedly downstairs to meet them in the living room.

Her mother and father were both sitting on the couch and she chose to ignore them. Her older brother, Kroy, was sitting opposite them looking very handsome in his dress robes.

Out of her whole family, her brother was the only person she had ever gotten along with. He was three years her senior and they couldn't have looked any less alike. Anyone who heard they were related was always surprised as neither bore any resemblance to the other.

Sitting down next to her brother, Eva passed the time for the next ten minutes by thinking more about Hogwarts.


"Regulus! Bring your brother and come and meet our guests!" Walburga's voice called through the still and quiet house.

Sirius and Regulus left the kitchen in silence and followed the sound of their mother's voice to the large dining room.

Standing in front of the fireplace was a family that Sirius recognised but didn't know the name of. He greeted them politely, shaking their hands.

The flames in the fireplace suddenly turned bright green and one after another, four people fell out of it. They stood up and brushed themselves off.

"Ah, Arcturus and Irma. Lovely to see you," said Orion Black, as he walked into the dining room to greet his guests.

"The pleasure is all mine," said the woman, presumably Irma. "Now I know you have met Kroy on many occasions, but I don't believe you have met my daughter. This is Peri."

"Hello, Kroy, how do you do? It's a pleasure meeting you, Peri," Orion said.

"Sirius!" his mother barked, "Come over here and meet your guests. These are the Millers. This is their daughter, Peri. Why don't you go and show her around the house and grounds? I need to discuss something with the adults."

"Oh, Regulus is an adult now?" Sirius inquired innocently.

His mother pulled him aside and whispered harshly in his ear, "Don't you give me any cheek tonight. I've had it with you! You know perfectly well why Regulus can be involved in such matters and you cannot."

Sirius scoffed, "Whatever makes you happy. Right, you, follow me," he said, indicating the girl. She obeyed and followed him out of the dining room.

They walked in silence out into the large backyard. The fountain was bubbling joyously and two owls sat perched in a nearby tree, their big, round eyes watching them.

"My parents call me Peri, but I'd prefer it if you just called me Eva," she said into the silence, "You're Sirius?"

He grunted, annoyed that she had punctured the quietness.

"You don't talk very much," Eva observed.

He stopped walking and spun around to face her. "Well pardon me for not being overly thrilled at the prospect of having my house full of iniquitous, sanctimonious, sordid purebloods," Sirius growled softly through gritted teeth.

Eva stopped walking and looked up at him in the dimming light. She noticed his heavy breathing and they way his eyebrows were knitted together in a tight frown. His eyes flashed angrily at her.

"You know, I don't like them, either," she finally said.

After a minute, they both simultaneously decided to keep walking.

Starting to loosen up, this time it was Sirius who spoke first. "So what school do you go to?"

"I'm about to start at Hogwarts," Eva replied.

"Start? People start when they are eleven. You look older than that. You've got to be at least fifteen or sixteen."

"Sixteen. I got expelled from my old school," she said, blushing ever so slightly. "Hogwarts was the only school willing to take me."

"It's a great school, that's for sure," Sirius said with a fond smile.

"Oh, do you know it?" Eva asked.

"Know it?" Sirius chuckled quietly, "It's been my real home for many years."

"Oh."

They sat silently for about ten minutes, basking in the serenity of the outdoors, until the tranquillity was broken by Walburga's screeching.

"I guess that means dinner's ready," Sirius said, flashing a mischievous grin at the girl next to him. "That woman is going senile. I don't know how much more I can take before she drives me out of here!"

He extended his hand and pulled Eva up into a standing position. Somehow she couldn't help noticing that the smile didn't really reach his eyes and she wondered just how serious he was about being driven out.


During dinner, Sirius and Eva didn't talk to one another. Eva was seated next to Regulus at the long table, while Sirius was positioned opposite Kroy.

"So you're coming to Hogwarts?" asked Regulus, between mouthfuls of mashed potato, "I wonder whether they will sort you with the first years or whether they will just put you in a house."

"Well it doesn't matter, does it? Either way she will be in Slytherin where all decent wizards and witches go," Walburga said, shooting a glare down the table at her older son.

Sirius didn't miss a beat. "Well I guess that all depends on what you would call a decent wizard," he said innocently, biting down into a chunk of duck.

"Don't you give your mother any lip, Sirius," Orion put in, joining the conversation.

"Well, I was merely saying that many people consider Gryffindor to be the house for decent wizards," he said, before adding in an afterthought, "Or Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. Actually, I guess any house other than Slytherin, really," he said in mock thoughtfulness.

"Sirius, go to your room. I do not want you putting any more rubbish into Miss Miller's head about her new school. NOW!" she barked as Sirius carefully began to help himself to another plate full of duck, his eyes never leaving his mother's as he did so.

With purposeful force, he threw his fork down onto the table and made for the door, plate in hand. When he reached the threshold, he turned back and said to Eva, "I'll see you at Hogwarts, my dear, and I promise I'll introduce you to some…" he glanced momentarily at his mother, "decent witches and wizards."

"Silencio!" Walburga yelled, jumping to her feet and pointing in the direction of the kitchen.

Sirius walked the way she pointed and perched himself on the kitchen bench, waiting for his mother. It took only seconds before she was at the door, shaking with rage.

He braced himself and waited for the bombshell to hit. But it never came. Instead, what did come was so soft it was almost inaudible.

"Never in my entire life have I been so humiliated. You are a disgrace to the name of Black. You are a blood traitor and I no longer want you in my house. Pack your things and get out. I don't care where you go. I don't ever want to see you again; you are no son of mine. I hereby disown you from the family of Black."

And in that single moment, all the hate bottled up inside Sirius towards his family was abolished. For that single moment it was replaced by a much more raw and powerful emotion: hope.

After all these long years, Sirius was finally able to leave behind the family that he had grown to hate and sever all the ties of their relationship.

Sirius Black was free at last.

A/N: please review!