Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters mentioned.

Chapter Eleven: Fun Day Out?

"Aaargh! Help me! Get it off!" screamed Cissy. "Help me, Reggie!" She flapped around, trying to get the last bits of the green, slimy seaweed that Sirius had thrown at her out of her hair and off her sundress. It was a week before Andromeda would come home, and Aunt Druella and Uncle Cygnus had taken Cissy, Sirius and I to the seaside for a day out. The grownups were sat on the blanket sunbathing, next to our amazing sand replica of Hogwarts, while we were out rock pooling. Cissy and I had been attempting to catch some little sea creatures, but Sirius had become bored and had thrown a bucket load of seaweed at us, causing Cissy to have a mini tantrum.

"Reggie! Help me get this horrible stuff out my hair!" I honestly did try to help her, but before I could get hold of any of the slippery weed, she toppled backwards into the rock pool, and on seeing her soaked blue dress, burst into tears. Sirius burst out laughing (it was actually quite funny, but Cissy was upset, and at the moment she was more my friend than Sirius was being, so I kept quiet).

"Siri, that was mean," I said, helping her up. Sirius stuck his tongue out at me, and I laughed.

Then I decided to comfort my dearest cousin, who was still crying (for some reason the 'Black's don't cry' rule doesn't apply to girls). "Shh, Cissy, don't cry. Aunty can just dry it with a drying spell, and Sirius didn't mean to make you upset," I told her, offering her a hanky from my pocket. Cissy wiped her eyes, and gave me a quick thank you. She then scowled at Sirius, who just stuck out his tongue again.

"Hey Cissy, come and look at what I've found," I said. I led her across the rocks to my water-filled bucket, and showed my cousin the little creature inside it.

"Is it a shrimp?" she asked.

"No. It's a prawn."

"What's the difference?" she asked.

"It has different markings, and prawns have a different rostrum thing on them," I said. When Cissy asked me what a 'rostrum' was, I pointed to the pointy thing that stuck out between its eyes. I wasn't sure exactly what it had said in Steph's animal book because I had since given it back, but I knew that they were definitely different animals.

"How come you know so much?" asked Cissy.

"Because I, unlike you, actually read those books in the family library," I said. There was no need to mention that that particular book had not been in our library at all.

"Hmm, well, I've got better things to do with my time," she said. I'm not sure if I'd call the things Cissy 'did with her time' better than what I did. It was mostly playing 'house' or 'tea parties' with dolls, or sometimes friends. On one occasion, she had actually managed to rope Crabbe into playing with her – I'd laughed out loud when I'd seen him after Cissy's 'make over'. Cissy was girly, but she could sometimes be so persuasive that it was impossible to say 'no' to her.

"Hey, don't you think the prawn looks like Rodolphus?" I said.

"No, he's uglier, and the poor prawn doesn't deserve to be compared to that murderer. I think it looks a bit like Rabastan though – same beady little eyes," said Cissy. I laughed.

"You know, this all makes sense now because prawns are related to crabs, and the Lestranges are related to the Crabbe family," I said, making Cissy laugh.

We released the prawn back into the water, where it swam off to join its friends amongst the anemones. I stood up carefully, balanced myself on the barnacle-covered rocks on the edge of the pool, and walked around the edge. Cissy followed me as I clambered over the rocks, towards Sirius, who was standing on quite a high ledge yelling because he had found something interesting. Sirius helped me up onto the ledge, which was about twice as high as Father was tall, and then I turned around to help Cissy up.

It was quite a large ledge, like a small cliff, with sharp rocks below. It was big enough to harbour a fairly rock pool that was full of pebbles and deep enough to swim in. Unfortunately, we were all wearing clothes.

"Look what I've found!" shouted Sirius, holding up his bucket, which happened to be bigger than mine. He didn't need to shout because we were right next to him, but he felt it was necessary to do so anyway, because he was excited. I don't know what I was expecting to see – probably some hideous crab or lobster or something, but I was very surprised to see that is full of star-shaped creatures, each one about the size of the palm of my hand.

"Wow! Star fish!" I said, poking my fingers in the bucket. Cissy looked intrigued, but kept her distance. I think she was afraid Sirius would tip the bucket over her head or something; even though she was wet enough already that it wouldn't have mattered anyway. "Can I hold one?" I asked.

"Sure," said Sirius. He picked one up, and put it on my hand. It felt weird, like it was clinging to me. I stroked it with my other hand and showed it to Cissy, who stroked it too, before putting it back in the water.

"Come on, let's go. It'll be lunch time soon," said Sirius. He scrambled down from the ledge, and landed in the soft, yellow sand. He then helped me down, and then we ran back to where we'd left the grownups. What we didn't realise until it was too late was that we'd left Cissy behind.

"Aaaaaaaaaaah!" At the sound of our cousin's high-pitched scream, the two of us ran back as quickly as we could to where we'd left her. She was lying unmoving on the rocks, and I could see blood on her head.

"Go and get Uncle," I told Sirius. For once he did what I told him, and ran off down the beach to get our Uncle. I walked up to where my cousin was lying to get a closer look, moving the golden curls off her face to inspect the damage done. I then checked her wrist, like I'd seen healers do, and felt her pulse. She was definitely alive.

"Please wake up, Cissy," I said, holding her hand. She didn't respond.

…..

It didn't take long for Sirius and Uncle to get back to us. My Uncle checked Cissy over, to make sure no bones were broken, then apparated us all back to his house, and laid her on her bed. He told us that there was nothing to worry about, and that she would be fine in a few hours time, but both me and Sirius stayed with her until she woke up.

…..

AN: Sorry that this is just a short filler chapter. I put it in for character building purposes. The description of the beach is a mixture of different beaches from Cornwall all mish-mashed together. I won't be able to write for a week because I am going on holiday to Greece now. If there is anything in this chapter that Regulus, Cissy or Sirius find funny, which you wouldn't, it is because they are younger.

Please tell me what you think in a review.