Chapter 19
A/N: I will be writing, but likely will not update until after January 12, as my mom's house does not have WiFI (horrible, I know), and I am heading back there tomorrow morning. So, please enjoy and review!
Unsurprisingly, Sirius did not want his daughter to go to the Malfoy's Banquet. Much like George, he actually thought that she was joking when she asked the morning she was supposed to depart.
"Sure, I'll let my only daughter go to the Malfoy's Banquet," he said after she posed the question to him before breakfast. "And afterwards, I'll even let her go and have tea with old Voldy himself! Good one, Bailey."
"Da', I'm not joking," she said. "I really want to go. That's why I was dressed like that the other day. Amelia has been trainin' me on how to be a proper Pureblood."
"Please, tell me that you are just beating this dead little joke of yours," he said after a second in a hoarse voice. Bailey was tempted to roll her eyes at the dramatics.
"No, Da', I'm being completely seri—sincere," she cut herself off quickly. They didn't need to launch into that dead horse. "I want to go. It is the biggest event of the year, and some very important people will be there. Narcissa even wants me to come early so that she can properly introduce me into Magical Society—"
"Narcissa? You mean you've already been talking with my snooty cousin?"
Bailey rolled her eyes. "I've met her before, Da'. She's me best mate's mum."
"And being introduced to proper society? Bailey, you've got to be joking," he said gesticulating wildly. "Not only is going to Malfoy Manor extremely dangerous, but it wouldn't even be fun! I should know, as many times as my parents forced me to go. I can understand you throwing the fit over the concert, but this? Merlin's beard, Minerva—"
"Malfoy Manor will be perfectly safe," she insisted. "There will be Ministry officials—even the Minister himself—so you know there will be plenty of Aurors about!"
"That doesn't matter when the Malfoys themselves are Death Eaters! And all of their friends!"
"'Ell, Da', I know how to handle meself around Death Eaters! You're the one who asked me to spy on them fer Dumbledore! If you were sooo worried for my safety, why the hell would you want me to do that?"
"So you admit it," Sirius replied, wagging a finger triumphantly in her face. "You admit that Slytherin is not as safe as you always say! I knew it was dangerous! I am owling Dumbledore right now, and getting you out of that House and where you belong in Gryff—"
"SHUTUP!" Bailey shouted, finally snapping. She closed her eyes, trying to regain control of her temper. "Just, please, shut up, and discuss this like an adult—"
Maybe she shouldn't have said that.
"YOU ARE STILL MY DAUGHTER, MINERVA BLACK!" Sirius roared back. "I AM YOUR FATHER!
"OH, PLEASE!" Bailey shouted, all hope of controlling her temper shooting out the window. The air crackled with her magic. "YOU ARE NO MORE MY FATHER THAN THE BLOODY MAIL MAN!" At her father's murderous look, Bailey forced herself to calm down and breath. This wasn't getting her anywhere.
"I just want to go to the Banquet," she said in a forced calm voice, not looking her father in eyes. "I want to wear a pretty dress, make some good contacts, and make the Black name respectable again. Despite what you told Dumbledore this summer, I am not becoming a Death Eater. I am just meeting people. Important people."
"You are meeting the people that locked me away and killed the Potters!"
"That blame lies with the Dark Lord—"
"See, you're already talking like them!" her father said hysterically.
"Talking like who?" Bailey asked, bewildered. The man was acting insane. Perhaps he wasn't nearly as recovered from his stint in Azkaban as everyone assumed.
"Like them!" he gesticulated wildly to the house around them. "Like the rest of this bloody family! You're going to 'make the Black name respectable' and 'meet important people'. Hell, you're even calling Voldemort the Dark Lord, Minerva! You sound like my brother just before he got the Dark Mark!"
"I am not—" Bailey began, offended.
"That's what he said, too," Sirius growled. "'Don't be ridiculous, Sirius.' 'We're not all bad, Sirius.' 'I won't get hurt and I won't hurt anyone.' Bollocks!"
"You're being unreasonable," Bailey said, shaking her head and turning to walk away so that he couldn't see the tears that she was having to hold back.
"No, you STAY RIGHT HERE!" Sirius thundered. Bailey stopped, but did not turn around. "No daughter of mine is becoming a lousy Death Eater! I should have known better and had you switch out of that House," he said 'House' the same way one would say Charles Manson, "the day I found out about it. You are not going to the Banquet, you are not staying friends with Blackwood, Zabini, and Malfoy, you are not going to Snape's apprentice. Hell, you may not even go back to Hogwarts! I am not letting you get branded!"
Bailey gaped at him. "You can't do that," she said, aghast. "You're bloody barmy if you think you can keep me locked in this damned house with you!"
"I can and I will. I am your father, and you will do as I say."
Bailey gaped at him for a second more before wrenching her bracelet off of her left wrist, where it had resided her entire life. It was the first gift her father had given her, the only family tradition he had seen fit to continue. She threw it down on the table between them.
"Wouldn' want that to get in the way of the Dark Mark, now would I?" she snarled, trying futilely not to cry. "I'll see yeh after the Banquet, or maybe not. May be off killin' an' torturin' innocent Muggles. Who knows? And why would you care anyways, if I am just some junior Death Eater wannabe?"
She stormed out of the kitchen and right into the arms of George, not even noticing as her magic sealed the door behind her. It had been acting weirdly lately. She stood there for a second, wanting to rage at him, too, before simply breaking down in his arms. Her boyfriend, for his part, seemed unsure of what to do, but eventually wrapped his arms around her and held her, whispering into her ear. After several moments, she realized that he was telling her his and Fred's plans to pull one last great prank on Umbridge.
"… will take up the entire Charms hall and will stink to high heavens. We haven't quite yet figured out how to get an alligator in there. Maybe Harry can help, talk Parseltongue, do snake magic voodoo stuff. Alligators are closely enough related to snakes, right?"
Alligators? In the Charms hall?
Bailey blinked up at him as his words sank in to her rage-addled brain. "You're bloody insane, aren't you?"
He laughed. "Yeah, maybe, but you're smiling now, aren't you?" he said with his customary dorky grin. She nodded, giving a watery laugh. "Sooooo… anything in particular that you wanna talk about?"
She looked down at her shoes, the black leather boots she liked to wear when riding the bike.
"He hates me. He thinks I'm evil."
"Nah, he doesn't," George said reassuringly. "At least he shouldn't. I mean, you're rather scary with your wand, and right now, even without one, absolutely terrifying with a cauldron, but evil? Pah, you're too… well, nice isn't exactly a word many who actually know you would use… maybe friendly?… no… that's really not you either…. Charming? Of course, you're a Slytherin, but that obviously is not a point in your favor for the whole 'not evil' thing…. hmmm… I think I'm beginning to see your dad's point here…."
Bailey laughed and punched him gently in the stomach. He grinned at her before kissing her gently, tasting of vanilla ice cream just like their first kiss.
"Have you been eating dessert before breakfast?" she admonished gently. "George Weasley, if your mother knew—"
Before she was able to finish that sentence, he was kissing her again, this time slowly pushing her against the wall, ignoring the jingle bells from the hats on the decapitated elf heads above them. After a while, she pulled away.
"I have to go," she whispered.
"Go where?"
"The Banquet, of course,"
"I thought your dad just—"
"I am the daughter of a Marauder, the girlfriend of a Weasley twin, and above all else, a Slytherin. If I want to go, then I am going."
George stared at her before kissing her again.
"You're really hot when you're being all badass," he whispered against her lips. "And all the leather just completes the image."
She struggled to duck out from beneath him, blushing furiously. "And you are stalling and making me late. I still have to get my stuff and then drop by Amelia's so that she can 'make me presentable'."
"Here," George said, and with a flick of his wand, her trunk appeared. "Now—"
She ducked away again, giggling. "Go on, yeh randy git! Amelia will kill me if she has a rat's nest and a hickey to work with!"
"You know I'm going to have to tell someone. So that search parties and the like aren't sent all over Great Britain."
Bailey frowned. "Give me a half-hour, at least. If there are no planes, then I should be to Dublin by then with Da's turbo settin'."
"Fine," George grumbled. "Just—stay safe, alright?"
"You've no need to worry about me. I'll be fine."
And before he was able to say (or kiss her) anymore, she slipped out the front door, took her father's miniaturized motorbike out of her pocket, resized it, and hopped on, leaving her father's house behind her.
Sirius POV
Before Sirius was able to storm out of the kitchen to follow his daughter, he heard a familiar voice behind him.
"That couldn'a gone any worse."
"I'm not in the mood, Tilly," he said, making to go after his daughter.
"Don't yeh take one step further," his ex-wife/fiancée said in a dangerous tone. Sirius had to admit, they were likely the strangest couple in all of Wizarding Britain. And that included his daughter and George Weasley. He still could not get his mind around it. "She's pissed off an' yer pissed off an' yeh won' listen to a thin' the other says righ' now. An', quite frankly, I'm not too happy with yeh right now, either."
"You're not happy with me?" Sirius replied, shocked. "Did you hear what your daughter just said to me?"
"Yes, and I also heard wha' you just said to your dau'er," Tilly said, tapping her foot, steam practically pouring out her ears. There were sometimes that Sirius counted his lucky stars that Tilly wasn't a witch. He would have been long dead by then if she had a wand. He was amazed that she hadn't killed him already without a wand. "You all but called her a Death Eater!"
"She said that I wasn't her father!" he half-shouted, but the argument sounded feeble to even him.
"Oh, an' tha' gives yeh the righ' teh call our dau'er a murderin' psychopath?" Tilly said, raising an eyebrow. Sirius felt a stab of shame go through his chest at her expression. "Sirius," she began, rubbing her face tiredly, "as much as it wasn't your fault that yeh weren' there while Bailey was growin' up—yeh still weren' there. An' she believes tha' yeh are gonna leave again."
"But, I would never—"
"She doesn' know tha', Siri!" Tilly exclaimed. "She still barely knows you! So she is gonna figh' yeh, every step of the way. It's basic child psychology. She is gonna try an' tear yeh down and call yeh every mean name in the book, and, yes, even deny tha' yeh are her father sometimes. She is gonna test you, an' it's gonna suck doubly because she's a rebellious teenager at the same time as she is tryin' teh make sure tha' yeh are worthy of her trust. An' yeh callin' 'er and 'er friends a Death Eater innit gonna cut it!"
"So you're saying that I should risk her safety and let her go to the Malfoy's Banquet?" Sirius said defeatedly.
"I dunno. Maybe?" At his horrified look, Tilly quickly continued. "We went to those damn banquets every year growin' up, Siri, an' we did so at the height of 'is power. But, 'e dinnit show up once, nor did 'is Death Eaters ever cause a scene. Do yeh really think that 'e would pull anythin' now tha' 'is position is so precarious?"
"No," Sirius said petulantly.
"So there, yeh see?" Tilly said, kissing his cheek. "She won' be in any more danger there than she is at 'ogwarts. An' knowin' Narcissa Malfoy, it is far more likely tha' they are jus' gonna try an' make 'er into a proper Pureblood an' all tha' rot, not some Death Eater. If I remember correctly, You-Know-Who was rather old-fashioned and didn't hardly even let girls in. Ok? It's not so bad after all, now is it, Siri?"
"Yeah, it is. My daughter hates me," he said morosely.
Tilly scoffed. "She's fifteen. She's bound teh hate yeh sometimes. It's normal. You an' I both know that it won' last. She practically worships the ground yeh walk on. But, she's gonna keep testin' you, makin' sure yeh aren't gonna leave her," Tilly suddenly grew stern. "An' if yeh can't handle tha', Siri, I need to know righ' now, before New Year's. I can't marry someone tha'll break my dau'er's heart, even if he is 'er father, because I migh' jus' 'ave teh kill 'im."
"Tilly, you know I would never leave," Sirius said, shocked that Tilly would insinuate such a thing. "I love you and I love her, no matter how much I want to strangle her."
"Good. Now we jus' need teh break yeh of this insane notion tha' she's gonna become a Death Eater."
"I know she's not gonna be a Death Eater," Sirius grumbled. "That Malfoy kid she hangs about, howev-"
"Draco is a lovely boy!"
"Whatever you say, darling."
"If yeh keep sayin' tha', then I think we're goin' teh settle back into married life very nicely, Siri," Tilly said teasingly as she walked closer to him.
"Never once doubted it, love," Sirius murmured, pulling his once-been and soon-to-be bride down to his chair and giving her a kiss. Just as he pulled her closer to deepen the kiss, however, the kitchen door swung open to reveal George Weasley, who between having continuously snogged his daughter (Sirius shuddered at the thought) and currently barging in on his time with Tilly, was very high up Sirius's shi—
"Sir, sorry to interrupt," George began nervously, wringing his hands slightly. The 'hurt my daughter and die' speech must have done its job to intimidate the boy sufficiently. "But, I thought it might interest you to know that Bailey has left for the Banquet. About a half-hour ago. On your motorbike."
Sirius suddenly felt guilty for every gray hair he and James had ever given Mrs. Potter when they had been teenagers. All of a sudden, he found himself relating very well.