The Houses Competition (or THC)

House: Slytherin

Class: Charms

Category (Drabble/Standard): Standard

Prompt(s) chosen: [Relationship] Uncle/Aunt & Nephew, [Era] Marauders

Word Count: 2841

Disclaimers/triggers: Hints at familial abuse, prejudice, wizarding insults and slurs.

Bad Blood

He crossed his arms as he threw himself down on the pristine settee in the drawing room. Against his will, he had been forced into an afternoon tea with his Aunt Druella and Uncle Cygnus. His mother threatened to transfer him to Durmstrang if he dared to skip the meeting or embarrassed her. Sirius was furious that he'd been cornered into this, but the threat of Durmstrang had scared him more than he'd admit.

"Thank you for coming to see us, Sirius." His aunt, Druella, hummed with a smile, pouring cups of tea from china that probably dated back to Roman rule. She was petite, with an air of casual and controlled elegance about her. Sirius knew she was the opposite of his mother in more than just looks. Where Walburga Black would bully (threaten) you into doing what she wanted, Druella would charm you and convince you that it'd been your idea in the first place. Sirius was not interested in playing along or making them believe he was a willing participant.

"I wasn't given much choice, Aunt Druella," he groused, his lips pursing over his teeth.

His uncle, Cygnus Black III, was a stout man with a thick mustache. He was a politician, which to Sirius meant he was a silver-tongued liar. He'd stopped believing a word the man said when he was twelve after they had exiled his favorite cousin. His uncle took his cup of tea, regarding Sirius with his dark, suspicious eyes. "You've been a difficult young man to get a moment with; we had to resort to more forceful methods to get your attention."

"I suppose I should be used to threats as this family's way of dealing with things." Sirius rolled his eyes. "So, what was so important that Mother dearest had to force me here to speak with you?"

"Young man," uncle Cygnus began, "we've noticed you've taken to keeping certain company—undesirable company that could give you a bad reputation."

Sirius narrowed his eyes as he sat forward, ignoring the cup of tea placed before him. He knew exactly who his uncle considered undesirable. "You mean I am friends with the people you consider blood traitors and Mudbloods?"

"There is no need to be defensive, Sirius," his aunt chimed in, stirring her tea. "We know your school house welcomes undesirables that you are forced to reside with, but that doesn't mean you have to socialize with them."

"What, you'd rather me be like Bellatrix? A sycophant to a homicidal maniac focused on blood purity?" he taunted. "Or like Narcissa, so afraid to make a misstep and be disowned that she shacked up with the first pureblood who looked kindly on her so she could escape you?" Sirius watched as his uncle's face began to redden. "Or are you afraid I'll be like Andro-"

Cygnus cut him off with a forceful snap. "We do not speak of her in this house!"

Satisfied that he'd gotten a rise out of the old man, Sirius held his hands up in false prostration. "Of course not, how could I forget, Uncle? We merely burn the blood traitors in our family off the tapestry wall."

Sirius had never forgiven them for their treatment of his favorite cousin. The whole family had been forced to act as if she had never existed, simply because she didn't conform to the standards of the noble house of Black. The fire in his gut tumbled as he remembered that it wasn't only Andy who had to suffer their scorn now. Her now four-year-old daughter was subject to the same snubbing.

"Andromeda was the best of us, and you tossed her aside like rubbish. She has a daughter, you know, your granddaughter. But because she married for the wrong kind of love, she doesn't exist."

"You try my patience, Sirius," his uncle growled in a warning.

"No, this family tries mine," he declared, pushing to his feet. "It's so corrupted and convoluted that we cannot even realize how screwed up we all are."

His uncle flexed his brawny hand on his knee, and Sirius wondered if Cygnus would be as quick with his wand as his own mother. Would he have time to block, or would he suffer through another hex at the hands of his own family?

His aunt sensed the tension and got to her feet, putting her hand on his arm. "Sirius, please. We wanted you to come sit and have a conversation about this with us. Can't we be civil for a moment?"

Civility?!

They wanted civility from him while they stood by and did nothing about the war brewing outside, nothing about the people whose lives were being lost in the name of the ideals they held above all else.

"How can you expect me to be civil when that madman has already recruited Regulus into his ranks? He's fourteen, and you are all pleased as punch that he is keeping to the family traditions, without any concern that he's going to get himself killed!"

Cygnus scoffed, shaking his head. "Surely you are mistaken. Regulus is too young. He's a bit zealous and ready to take his place in the society which you have rejected, but he is in no danger."

"He has the mark on his arm!" Sirius snarled, still not sitting back down even as his aunt sank back into her seat. "He is a Death Eater just like Bellatrix! She and Mother have warped his mind into believing in the glory of bloodlines and this purity nonsense, and he's fallen for it."

"There is nothing wrong with wanting to preserve the environment you came from," his aunt responded calmly as if Sirius had not been yelling so loud that it echoed through the Manor. "It is exactly like certain reagents for potions needing to be kept away from others because combining them causes volatile and undesirable results."

"We aren't bloody mandrakes, Aunt Druella!" he protested angrily.

His uncle rose to his feet, his wand in his hand as he glowered at Sirius. "You will not talk to your aunt in that tone, young man."

The promise of what would come next was clear in his uncle's voice, and Sirius weighed his options. He could likely handle a confrontation with Cygnus, but at what cost?

Would it get him out of this antiquated house with its backwards thinking occupants sooner?

He didn't think so.

Instead, it would prolong this unwanted conversation and stir up the anger that was simmering under his skin at everything this family seemed determined to stand for.

Sirius exhaled, plopping down again on the settee angrily. "Why am I here? Just get it out so I can leave."

"Your mother asked us to speak with you," Cygnus responded, his voice tight.

Sirius knew he was attempting to contain his anger under the dressing of concern and civility.

His uncle continued, "She wishes to know what we can do as a family to keep you from treading the wrong path—the path that will lead to your disownment and ruination." The last words were said as if they were the worst thing to happen in the world. It was likely that Uncle Cygnus believed that being disowned was the same as the apocalypse, as he would be nothing without the social and familial ties between the Blacks and the other Sacred Twenty-Eight.

So they wanted to know what they could do as a family to sway him into conformity and be a good little Black.

"Will you stand against the Death Eaters? Will you defy the self-described Dark Lord, denounce blood purity as anything other than inbreeding?" Sirius snorted, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. "Because that is what it will take."

"You've inherited the Black stubbornness, like your mother," his uncle commented like it was a compliment. "It is a shame that you are so adamant to use it on destroying this family."

Sirius laughed haughtily. "I'm the one destroying this family, but it's not disgraceful that Bellatrix is draped all over a man who isn't her husband? You call me a disgrace because I am a Gryffindor, because I can recognize the bullshit for what it really is, but you can't even perceive what she's become." He knew that it wasn't that they couldn't see it; it was that they didn't want to see it. "Bellatrix is a psychotic murderer."

Aunt Druella lowered her tea cup, her normally high-pitched voice low with disdain. "Your house sorting is the least of the reasons why you are becoming a disgrace to this family."

"I consider it a point of pride that I have more than one reason to be regarded as a disgrace. I have no desire to be another crazed Dark Wizard from the house of Black," he spat the words out with all the disgust he could muster.

That he was a part of this pedigree ate at him daily, knowing that he was from a long line of hateful, ignorant purists. The prejudice he was born to enraged him. Some of the best people he knew were half-blood or Muggleborn. Mary MacDonald had a wicked sense of humor and was the only girl besides McKinnon to beat him on a broom. Lily Evans was, ignoring her poor choice in being friends with Snivillus, a brilliant witch who could waltz around their entire year in potions and charms. And there were so many others. If he had felt like his family did, then he would have never taken the time to know them, and what would he have missed out on, then?

"Enough. We are trying to be civil with you, Sirius, and you are spitting on our hospitality," his uncle stressed, a thinly veiled threat behind his words.

"I suppose your version of civil is more tolerable than my mother's. By now, I'd be spitting blood all over her hospitality," Sirius disclosed with a shrug.

His uncle's mustache twisted with his lips as a sort of fury filled his dark eyes. "Do not make such disgraceful accusations against my sister, young man."

"Accusations?" Sirius spat, his eyebrows up and his eyes wide. "Do you honestly believe what you're saying? I've known more curses from her lips than any of the young Death Eater cultists at Hogwarts. I'm only alive because I'm the heir to this black stain of a family."

"I have heard enough disrespect out of you," Cygnus said, his anger rising.

"Sirius, please, what can I do to convince you that you are choosing the wrong path?" Aunt Druella put her hand on Cygnus's knee, stilling him as she glanced imploringly at Sirius. "You need to think of how you are hurting this family by choosing to behave in this way. Your mother is only trying to do what is best for you."

So that is what she thought she was doing. The longer he sat there listening to his extended family try to convince him that he was going down the wrong path and becoming friends with undesirable people, the more he wanted to remove himself from them. It had been something he'd considered most of the summer, especially when Euphemia and Fleamont had told him that he would always have a place there with them.

If my family truly wanted what was best for me, who am I to deny them? he thought sarcastically.

"What is best for me is to get as far away from this Merlin forsaken family as possible," he announced.

His aunt covered her mouth, aghast, shaking her head. "Is that the choice you wish to make, Sirius? You know the consequences—you know what will happen."

"Oh, I know all about it; my mother has told me in great detail. I'll be scorched from the family tree and disowned. I'll finally be free." The longer he thought about just walking out of there and never looking back, the more it seemed like the perfect thing to do. If he no longer lived under her roof and was no longer her son, how could she move him to Durmstrang? If she had no ties to him, she'd have no control over his life either.

His uncle seemed to sense that Sirius was not simply being defiant for defiance's sake and was actually considering leaving the family because his voice lowered and he appeared concerned as he spoke. "So you understand that you'll be alone, without a family to help or protect you."

"Protect me?" Sirius could not believe that they were trying to wave their protection over his head as leverage. If they had wanted to protect him, it would have happened a long time ago. "You have no interest in protecting me. You only wish to protect your precious bloodline."

"I suppose if you've made your choice, there is no reason to continue this conversation." His uncle rose from the settee across from him, turning to walk out of the room. "Leave."

"Cygnus, sit down," Aunt Druella demanded before she turned in her seat, leaning across the table to try and reach for Sirius' hands.

He pulled back from her, refusing to let her try to manipulate him with false comfort.

She frowned, her dark eyes saddened. "Sirius, you are young and impulsive. You want to rebel and do exactly the opposite of what your family wants. I understand; I was young once. But I grew up and understood my family was only doing what was best for me. You too will wake up one day and realize this. Please, don't make any rash choices now that you will regret."

If she thought her rehearsed plea would have changed his mind, she was wrong. It had the exact opposite effect on him. She'd just admitted to him that at one time she'd seen the madness for what it was, but she let them pull her back in and make her submit and change who she was. If he stayed, he would be like her one day also; a slave to the notions and ideas of a House he loathed. Sirius tightened his jaw, his mind made up. He was going to leave this cursed family once and for all. "I've already chosen."

"Druella, you are wasting your breath on the boy," Cygnus quipped from beside her as he ran his fingers along the outline of his mustache.

His aunt seemed to ignore his uncle as her voice rose with worry and something like fear. "Where will you go? How will you survive? You will lose everything: all financial support, your home."

"What does it matter? I won't exist to you afterwards—just like Andy." Sirius wondered if she'd asked Andromeda the same thing: if she'd fretted and bleated as her middle child made the same decision he was making now.

"Sirius, please."

Andromeda had the right idea. She'd made the choice to forsake the family name over what she believed was the right thing for her, regardless of what they threatened her with or how they pleaded with her.

As Sirius glanced between his disengaged and hostile uncle and his overly dramatic aunt, he realised the only emotion he felt toward them was anger and irritation. There had never been any love in this family, never any warmth or compassion. In reality, he knew they didn't care if he stayed or left. Either way, they still had heirs in Bella, Cissy, and Reg.

It all seemed disingenuous, as if this was an act so that they could say they did their best, just as they tried to convince him. Just like they had told the family they'd done for his favorite cousin.

Sirius got to his feet again, making his way toward the door. "Thank you so much, Uncle Cygnus, Aunt Druella, for helping me make up my mind. I'm such a disgrace to the Black name, I'd rather hang out with the wrong sort. I guess I'll do what is best for all of us and leave."

"Your mother will not be pleased," his uncle said gruffly from his place on the settee.

Sirius smirked, adjusting his leather jacket on his shoulders. "Oh, I am counting on that. I expect I'll visit Andromeda and little Nymphadora after this. I'd love to meet my niece. I'll tell Andromeda that you're still intolerant gits, and she's still better off without you."

It was his aunt whose face contorted with his final jab, her nose wrinkling and her jaw tight. "I will hear no more of this. Get out."

"With pleasure," Sirius yelled as he marched out of the drawing room. He didn't stop until he was well past the gates of the familial Manor. Flipping his collar up, he held out his wand, summoning the Knight Bus.

The bright purple bus blinked into existence before him, the conductor smiling at him as he climbed on. "Where to?"

Sirius took one look back at Black Manor and knew he was making the right choice. "The Potter Residence," he announced proudly. "I'm going home to be with my family."