-~- Chapter 4 – Family Ties -~-
"EVERTE STATUM!" Andromeda yelled at Bellatrix, hoping to throw her sister back against the stone wall - but to no avail. Bellatrix simply deflected it.
"CRUCIO!" Orion and Cygnus cried in unison.
"Protego Horribilis!" Sirius bellowed, and just as the jets of light were inches away from Andromeda, they were quickly deflected by strands of silvery light that formed a shield around them.
"CURSE YOU!" Walburga shrieked, and the magic pulsing through her veins caused the panes of glass in the wall of windows by the fireplace to come caving in.
The wind that surged through the broken windows brought the glass with it and severed the rope that suspended the large crystal chandelier from the ceiling.
"Kreacher get us out of here!" Regulus cried as he pushed Narcissa out of the way of the shattering crystals.
Over the howling of the wind Sirius could hear a loud popping sound and looked over in time to see Kreacher apparate behind Regulus and Narcissa, grab them by the back of the robes and then disapparate.
This momentary lapse of concentration was all Orion needed to cast a nasty severing charm at Sirius, who was completely unaware of the light growing ever closer to his left heel.
"Oh no you don't! Protego! Confringo!" Andromeda was easily able to deflect Orion's curse, however he was not as lucky. Old with age, he was unable to properly dodge the angry flames that erupted from Andromeda's wand, and so the hem of his silk cloak caught fire.
"Sirius! We need to get out of here!" Andromeda called to Sirius over Orion's panicked screams and the chilling wind. The wind caused her long brown hair to whip around her face and as she spun around to deflect each of the oncoming curses at her and her little cousin, it was beginning to disorientate her.
"Follow me!" he shouted back. "Bombarda Maxima!" he yelled as he took aim at a nearby wall. The distraction caused by the explosion was enough for Sirius to grab Andromeda by her free hand and rush her from the room, while his Mother, Uncle and Aunt were temporarily knocked unconscious and buried under a pile of bricks.
"I'm going to get you!" Bellatrix cackled as she chased after her sister and cousin into the narrow hallway.
"Sirius your things! Hurry!" Andromeda called to him as she shoved him out of the way of an oncoming jet of light towards the narrow staircase and turned to face her sister head on.
The way Sirius landed he was lying face down on the bottom steps of the narrow staircase, and he pushed himself back up to gape at his cousin.
"You can't take her on by yourself!"
"Expelliarmus!" Andromeda cried and breathed a sigh of relief for a second when Bella's wand flew into her open hand. "Go!" she insisted to Sirius as she advanced forward on Bellatrix.
Sirius eyed Bellatrix warily before casting a worried glance at Andromeda and running up the stairs.
"Stupe-" Andromeda was quickly silenced by Bellatrix smirking and her wand flying back into her hand. Andromeda practically growled at her sister - she'd forgotten how good Bellatrix was at non-verbal spells. 'Accio' had always been one of her specialties.
"Let's finish this," she snarled.
"Gladly."
The last thing Sirius saw of his cousins as he climbed the narrow staircase was flashes of light that lit up the hallway, and he only hoped that Andromeda would be ok until he returned.
Sirius hurried up the stairs, taking care not to trip and constantly looking over his shoulder for his deranged parents or his Aunt and Uncle.
He could hear a scream from below - he knew he had to hurry and he quickened his pace when he felt the house shake slightly. Another wall had just been blown out - probably in the hallway.
Sirius scrambled up the final few steps. He threw open his bedroom door his eyes frantically scanning the space and peering behind the wooden door before being satisfied that he was alone and stepping inside.
He crossed to the centre of the room and kneeled down to retrieve his trunk from under his bed.
His hand searched the darkness under his bed - but his fingers did not come into contact with the brass handles on the side of his trunk, or it's leathery surface.
Instead they only passed through thin air.
Not only was this odd, but he was wasting valuable time. His trunk SHOULD be here. It had been packed for weeks - counting down the days until he could return to school.
He bent down properly and stuck his head under the bed, the sounds of the fighting below growing louder with each passing second. He hadn't been imagining things. His trunk wasn't here.
WHY WASN'T IT HERE? WHERE COULD IT POSSIBLY B-
"Would the Blood Traitor be looking for this?"
Sirius lifted his head and whirled around to face the door. He had not been expecting to see the sight before him.
Kreacher - his bat like ears perked up, the wiry strands of hair atop his head looking more frazzled than usual and a menacing glint in his large glassy eyes. His lips were turned up into a crooked sneer, and he had one hand on the handle of Sirius's trunk.
"Give me that. NOW," Sirius ordered, standing up and advancing towards the little elf to tower over him.
"Kreacher does not think he will," grinned the little elf.
"I will not ask again Kreacher! Give me that n-"
"Kreacher, give it to him," came a panicked voice from the doorway.
Sirius was shocked for the second time within the space of two minutes.
"Regulus...what are you doing here?"
Regulus stood in the doorway, opening and closing his mouth continuously - apparently at a loss for words.
His thick dark hair was coated with dust where the Chandelier had fallen and he had a few cuts on his cheeks from the shattering crystals. His eyes seemed shinier than usual - even a bit scared looking. That was understandable though - the family was at War downstairs.
Sirius had been about to ask something when the house shook again, whether it was due to the booming thunder claps outside or the battle taking place downstairs, he didn't know. But he knew he had to hurry.
"Regulus, what are you doing here?" Sirius called to him again over the sound of screams and anguished cries that drifted upstairs.
"I-I...I mean-" Regulus ran a hand through his matted hair out of frustration. This was more difficult that he thought it'd be. "I-I-"
"Spit it out Reg! I don't have time for this!" Sirius barked as he moved forward to pick up the trunk and push past his brother.
"No!" Regulus cried and blocked Sirius's exit. "I have to say this!" he insisted, and Sirius noticed a hint of desperation in his brothers voice. He may not like him - but they were still brothers. And no brother should have to hear his sibling sound like this...so scared.
"Reg, what's wrong?"
Regulus still seemed unable to get the words out, so Sirius knew he'd have to try something else to help him - and then it came to him.
"Reggie," Sirius said in a small voice, to which Regulus's head snapped up to meet his brothers. "Reggie," Sirius repeated, it felt odd saying his nickname after all years of not even uttering it. The last time he'd used that nickname, the brothers had not been fighting. They had been happy - or as happy as two people could be in a house like this - they had been friends.
Regulus's eyes began to water and it was then that Sirius realized why his eyes had looked so shiny before - he was trying not to cry. With out a word Regulus threw himself at his brother and hugged him tight.
Sirius stood motionless, unsure of what to do for a minute, before gaining control of his arms and patting his brother on the back. A moment like this seemed so out of place given what was happening downstairs. "Reg I have to g-"
"You can't leave me here alone!" Regulus begged, pulling back to give his brother an intense frightened look.
"Reg, I have to! I'm not marrying our cousins and refusing to do that means disinheritance! You heard what Dad said!"
Regulus's bottom lip began quivering. "But- AH!"
Sirius jumped backwards, staring confusedly at his brother. His eyes were shut tight and he was shaking, as though he were fighting with himself – trying to keep control.
"Regulus, what's-"
That's when he heard it – the cackling laughter. That deranged, cackling laughter. The sound drifted up the stairs and before Sirius could even blink, black tendrils of smoke and darkness began oozing into the room through the crack under the door.
"Reg – move away from the door now!" he cried, running forwards and trying to pull his little brother away.
"I – Can't - AH! RUN!" Regulus grunted, still shaking with his hands balled up into fists.
"Reg what's gotten in to you? Move no-
"Nobody's moving anywhere!" came a manic sing-song voice from the other side of the door. The sound of it sent shivers up Sirius's spine and he didn't need to see who it was outside to know what was coming next.
"Regulus listen to me! We need to go before it's too la-"
At that the door was blasted off it's hinges, causing jagged shards of splintered wood to ricochet off the surrounding walls and fall hard to floor.
The black tendrils flowed freely into the room, lacing their way around Regulus's legs and snaking up and around his body until there was a perfect shrouded outline behind him. Sirius knew who would emerge out of the shadow before he even saw her dark tangled curls.
"Nobody runs away from me," Bellatrix snarled as the smoke cleared, letting Sirius see her properly. Although he was lying on the floor, he could still see the demented glint in her eyes as they flashed dangerously. And the way her wand was pointed at Regulus.
"Where's Annie?" Sirius asked through frozen lips, eyeing her wand carefully. Regulus was still shaking as tears trickled down his cheeks.
"That little Witch got what was coming to her," Bellatrix spat.
"Whatever you're doing to him leave him alone, this is between you and me," Sirius said cautiously, standing up to look at her properly.
"It is between you and me, as much as it between you and him now," she smirked and before Sirius could ask what she was on about, Regulus stopped shaking and his eyes opened. They were completely glazed over. As though he were staring into space – Not really there.
It didn't take Sirius even two seconds to figure out what she'd done to him. The bottom lip that had been trembling before stopped, and his entire face became a hard emotionless mask.
Regulus was under the Imperius Curse.
"Kill him," Bellatrix said simply, before flicking her wand. It took a second, but Regulus's right leg shuffled forwards, before the other followed and in no time at all he was walking in a zombie-like state towards Sirius – his wand raised.
"How dare you! You mental bitch!" Sirius yelled at her as he moved backwards out of Regulus's way. "Reg – listen to m-" he dodged a stunning curse from Regulus's wand just in time. "-me, this isn't you! You aren't doing this! You can still be in control! Just fight it-" he only just managed to jump out of the way of a nasty Cruciartus Curse. "Stop it!" Sirius bellowed to Bella, who was standing in the doorway with a twisted smirk.
"Oh what's wrong – ickle Sirius no want to play?" Bella pouted mockingly.
"Not with Death Eater scumb like you!" he countered.
"IMPERIO!" Bella screamed and her control over Regulus heightened to the point where Sirius could see Bella in Regulus's eyes. "KILL HIM!"
"Avada Kedavra!" Regulus yelled.
"Regulus! Stop!" Sirius cried, deflecting the curse just on time.
"Avada Kedavra!"
"I said- ARGH!" he only just managed to save himself from that one.
"Yes! Kill him! Do it now!" Bellatrix cackled, clapping her hands as she watched Sirius scramble around the room trying to dodge Regulus's curses.
"Not my cousins you little bitch!" came a voice from the doorway, wiping the smirk right off of Bellatrix's face. She hadn't expected to hear that voice again. But before she could turn around, a jet of light hit her stomach and Bella was thrown into the tall armoire opposite Sirius's bed while Regulus fell unconscious to the floor.
Andromeda breathed a sigh of relief and slumped against the doorframe. Her bottom lip was burst and she had a bad cut on her forehead, causing blood to trickle down the side of her face. Her body was bruised and battered, and she limped into the room on her left ankle. Her golden silk robes were now tattered and covered in dust. Tears in the fabric showed where several severing curses had been cast, exposing the cuts beneath.
"Annie," Sirius breathed, picking himself up off the floor and running over to her side to support her. She was a mess.
"I don't think we need to worry about her much longer," she chuckled, eyeing Bella's figure lying still in a crumpled heap on the floor.
"We need to get you out of here – but Regulus-" he said turning back to his brother.
"You can't do anything to help him, he'll be that way until Bella's influence wares off. Even now he could still be a danger to us – we have to go," she told him as she summoned his trunk and turned her head to look down the stairs as thunderous thuds reached her ears.
Sirius gave his brother one last anguished look – he hated leaving him, but he knew Annie was right. There was nothing they could do. "Ok then," he agreed, helping Annie limp from the room and then positioning her against the wall outside before turning back to the door.
"What are you doing?" she asked, grabbing her side as a pang of pain shot through her.
"If I can't take him with us – then the least I can do is protect him," Sirius said, repairing the door with a flick of his wand and building a fortress of furniture around an unconscious Bellatrix before barricading the door and casting a protective enchantment around it.
Once he was done, he spent one more second standing there staring at the door. This was it.
He grabbed his trunk with one hand and supported Annie with the other as they made their way down each step.
"Where's everyone?" Sirius whispered once they reached the second floor.
"I left Mother in the hallway – one of Bellatrix's curse missed and rebounded off the wall…she's bleeding pretty bad. Uncle Orion was buried under a pile of bricks falling from the Living Room wall from a spell – I didn't see whos it was. He hasn't moved since. And Father-" she bit her lip to stop the tears. "H-He…He got in the way of Orion's killing curse-" she was cut off by a sob.
Sirius stopped walking and turned to give her a hug. He cradled her in his arms and just stood there for a minute holding her. He couldn't imagine how hard it must have been for her to fight her own family, all for him, and he'd never be able to thank her enough.
"Narcissa," he said quietly.
"I-I don't know, she must have escaped-"
"Sirius, Andromeda, over here," came a hushed voice from behind a tapestry.
The pair looked around frantically for the mysterious voice before finding it's source and gasping.
"Cissy – what are you doing here?" Andomeda cried, limping over to her and pulling her in for a hug.
"Ye, I thought Kreacher got you and Regulus out," Sirius said suspiciously, eyeing her warily.
She stepped out from behind the tapestry properly, her green robes, like Andromedas, were completely ruined. Shards of glass and crystal from when the Chandelier had fallen had shredded her robes around her legs and her curls were frizzy and tangled.
"He did, but I had to come back. It didn't feel right – and when I saw Orion trying to kill you Annie, I couldn't not do anything-" a whimpering sound cut her off and Annie realized her baby sister was crying too.
"It was you who brought the wall down on Orion – you were the one who saved me," Annie said in awe.
Narcissa nodded. "Aunt Walburga is still in the house – she's in the family tapestry room. If you want to leave, now is the time. I don't want anymore blood to be shed over this."
Sirius and Annie looked to eachother, both of them shocked at Narcissa. They had never seen Cissy take control over a situation like this before.
Sirius nodded. "It's too risky going down to the Hall, one of them could recover. How are we going to- wait. Annie, you can apparate can't you?"
Annie turned to look at him, quite surprised. "Yes, I'm not the best at it but I can," she said warily, wondering where he was going with this.
"Can you apparate us to the garage?"
She blinked at him. "The garage? Why would you want to go to the g-"
"Please just trust me on this," he begged.
Narcissa stepped forward and placed her hand in Andromeda's one. She felt her sister squeeze her hand, and she knew that Cissy was telling her to trust Sirius. "Ok, come on we'd best-" they heard an exploding sound from the Tapestry room, followed by another, and they knew that Walburga was erasing faces from the family tree. "We'd best hurry then," Annie said quickly and grabbed Sirius by the hand before concentrating hard and turning on her heel.
She felt the sickening pull at her naval and when she opened her eyes, she was thankful that they opened to the sight of the dusty dark garage at the back of the house.
She had only ever been in here once or twice, she hadn't been sure if she could do it or not.
They heard a scurrying sound in the farthest corner of the room, where the shadows were the darkest, and Narcissa curled into Annie's side. "Lumos," she whispered and raised her wand to find the source of the noise.
She looked around, but could not find it. "Sirius – what was that?" she muttered panicly. She gasped when she turned to her left to find that Sirius was not there.
"Sirius! Where are you?" she called, now starting to feel really scared.
"I'm over here!" came a voice from the corner where the sound had come from before.
She shone her light further across the space, and sure enough Sirius was standing next to a large covered object. She breathed a sigh of relief and pulled Narcissa across the cluttered space to stand by his side.
"What are we doing down here? What's this?" she asked confusedly.
"This-" he smiled,"-Is our way out of here," and with that he pulled the sheet off of the object to reveal a large motorbike.
The sisters gaped at it. "THAT is how we're getting out of here? Sirius, it's falling to pieces!" Annie cried.
"It'll run," he assured her, wheeling it out a bit before flicking his wand at the garage door and opening it up. The wind surged into the space almost instantly, bringing the rain with it and Narcissa had to shield her eyes against the rain.
"Sirius! We can't go out in this! The roads are too dangerous!" Annie called to him, shocked to see that he was retrieving two dusty helmets from a cabinet near by and loading his trunk into the side cart.
"Who says we're driving on roads?" he grinned back at her, climbing on the bike and pulling a key out of his pocket. He'd been wanting to fly this all Summer, but now that he was sitting on it, he was nervous. What if it didn't start? He turned the key in the ignition, and revved the bike. It spluttered and turned off a few times before roaring to life as a loud clap of thunder sounded over head. "It's a flying bike! We can fly above the storm!" he said relieved.
Andromeda looked skeptical but needed no more encouragement when she heard a pounding sound on the wooden door at the back of the room. Someone was coming.
She scrambled on to the bike and grabbed a hold of Sirius's waist.
"Cissy! Cissy come on!" Andromeda called to her sister, who was simply standing there frozen.
Narcissa cast a worried look to the door in the corner before turning back to her sister and shaking her head. "My place is here," she said, her voice cracking and tears welling up in her eyes.
"No! No Cissy you can't stay here! You can come with us, start over! Ple-"
The door was thrown open and Walburga Black stepped into the room, her wand raised.
"Nobody can escape the wrath of the Noble House of Black!" Walburga shrieked, and Kreacher emerged from behind her smirking at Sirius and Annie on the bike.
"Rotten good for nothing little Snitch!" Sirius yelled at Kreacher, who began firing hexes at him and Annie as Walburga did.
"Annie we have to go!" Sirius called to her over the sound of glass shattering and the wind howling.
"No! We can't lea-"
"Just go!" Narcissa cried, stepping backwards out of the way of the bike and looking over her shoulder at Walburga. She was getting closer and Narcissa knew that if it looked like she was helping them escape, she too would be disinherited, and she would lose everything. Lucius. The title of Lady Malfoy. Malfoy Manor. Everything.
She brandished her wand and held it up to Andromeda and Sirius.
"Go," she begged.
"No!"
Sirius saw that Walburga and Kreacher were blasting their way through the cluttered Garage and the hexes were getting closer. He spared one last look at Narcissa before revving the engine again and gripping the handlebars tight. "Hold on!" he warned and with that, he pressed the flying button on the right handle bar and took off out of the garage – Andromeda screaming for Narcissa the whole time.
Her cries were quickly drowned out though as Sirius climbed higher into the sky, above the clouds and rain.
The last glimpse he caught of Grimmauld Place before the clouds engulfed him was of his Mother and Kreacher standing in the driveway, screaming at the top of her lungs and casting all kinds of curses into the sky.
That was the last he would see of Grimmauld Place until he would return there several years later.
As the first rays of sun broke through the clouds, he truly realized that this was it.
He was breaking free of his family.
They were gone once and for all.
He wouldn't have to go back again.
He was free of the Noble House of Black.
Once and for all.