AN: Just a warning that Lily refers to a person of colour as a "coloured person" in this chapter as that was considered the more polite way of referring to people of African or Caribbean descent in 1970s UK. I in no way condone this. Also, there's a lot of indirect references to what's known as 'The Troubles' in Northern Ireland as it was very much in full swing in the 70s

Thursday 1st July 1976

12 Grimmauld Place, 10:00

This wasn't ominous at all. No, being called to his father's study on the very first day he was home for the holidays was a good thing. The best sort of thing.

Of course, it wasn't! A summoning to Orion Black's office was never a good thing. Never ever, ever.

He was tempted to take his time going down because there was no way this wasn't a dream of some sort. But he knew better. There was no point in making his father more annoyed than he already was. On the plus side, Sirius hadn't heard his mother shriek or anything so maybe it wasn't that bad?

He could hope, anyway. Even if it was a long shot.

The door was open but he knew better than to go in. Oh no, you only made that mistake once and he had made it when he was six. He knocked firmly on it instead. Not a hard knock, that was impatient and impolite but not so soft that you came across as anything less than confident. Even though Sirius had never felt confident going into his father's study. That just wasn't possible. The room just seemed to suck it all out of him.

There was a stupidly long pause before the order to "Come in," was issued.

Bracing himself for what was sure to be a telling off of some kind, Sirius went in.

"Ah, yes, Sirius," father greeted him with a disapproving look, pretty par for the course these days. "Take a seat."

Sirius tried not to look too shocked at that. He didn't ever think he'd been asked to sit in his father's office before. It was always him standing in front of his desk, hands behind his back and chest out waiting for a scolding or doling out of punishment.

Mostly doling out of punishment but his parents did like to add a good scolding every now and then. Well, his father did. His mother just liked to scream at him.

So being allowed to sit down was definitely something new. He didn't think he'd ever seen someone sit in the seats in front of his father's desk. Unfortunately, there was nothing special about the seats. They were straight backed and just about comfortable.

"I'm sure you're wondering why I've summoned you here."

Why could his father not use words like 'call' or 'ask'? 'Summon' was such a dramatic and over the top word to use. Again, Sirius used what little common sense he had and bit his tongue.

"Yes, sir," he responded politely instead.

Hey, things were looking to be quite civil, for a change. It would be nice to keep that up. Even if it was only briefly.

"It's just the matter of your marriage contract-"

"I don't have one," Sirius blurted out.

He couldn't help it. It was true. Unlike nearly every other noble pureblood child, he, Sirius Black, wasn't actually betrothed to anyone. Odd, he knew, but it wasn't exactly anyone's fault. Avery's child ended up being a boy...

"Indeed," his father replied with a frown.

Sirius wasn't sure if that was because of his interruption or because the Avery's had the audacity to have a boy...

Anyway, it didn't exactly matter because he didn't have a marriage contract. Which was just fine by him, thank you very much. The very idea of one made his skin crawl. It would be like someone was selling their daughter to him and that was just weird.

"Nonetheless," father continued. "I have taken steps to correct this matter."

Excuse him, what? His father had done what? No, there was no way he could have heard that right. He was going crazy, that was it. But his father was looking dead serious. Oh no. Really?

"What?" he exclaimed. "No!"

Father did not look impressed with him at all.

"Don't be ridiculous, Sirius. You knew this was going to happen."

"No, I didn't!"

How on earth was he supposed to know that? No one had ever told him! He assumed that it wasn't going to happen. Actually, that was untrue. He hadn't even given thought to the possibility that something like this would happen. Who would even think like that?

His father was looking incredibly annoyed at him. More so than usual.

"You should be grateful!"

"Why should I be grateful that you are controlling my life!"

His father immediately dismissed him. "Don't be ridiculous, I'm not controlling you or your life."

Sirius gaped at him incredulously, forgetting himself briefly.

"You are! You are controlling it! What else do you call ordering me to marry someone?"

There was literally no other word for it. No way to make it better. It was control, plain and simple. Of course, his father didn't see it this way at all! Because he was ridiculous (and oh how Sirius longed to say that out loud but he did, shockingly, have some self-preservation. Some).

"I'm shaping it."

Sirius snorted. "More like chiselling it in stone."

'SMACK'

That got him a slap across the face. Which stung and throbbed but wasn't entirely unexpected. What was unexpected was that Orion hadn't used his wand for such a deed like he normally did. His father was extremely accurate with a stinging hex, after all. His hand automatically went to the injured area. Soreness on his face was always much harder to ignore, he found.

"Now, enough of these dramatics, Sirius," his father said calmly as if he hadn't just assaulted his own son.

Sirius carefully felt around the inside of his mouth with his tongue, convinced that a tooth had been knock loose but apparently not.

"I'm not being dramatic," he said sullenly. "You are trying to force me into something against my will."

"It shouldn't be against your will. You should understand that this is necessary."

"I survived sixteen years without being betrothed, pretty sure I can survive more."

Which obviously meant that it wasn't necessary, right? Surely his father could see that?

No. That was a big, fat no.

"You don't understand that who you involve yourself with has consequences! Friends with halfbloods and bloodtraiters. Having romantic relations with bloodtraiters."

The drew Sirius up short. McKinnon? Father was talking about McKinnon? How did he know about her? Not that he would call what he and she were doing as romantic or even in anyway serious.

Father got an extremely satisfied look on his face. "Yes. I know about your little relationship with that McKinnon girl."

"It's nothing," Sirius told him.

"And it's going to remain that way," his father continued in a false pleasant tone. "Because you will be betrothed."

"No. I won't."

Didn't he get a say in this at all? He was sixteen now! Hey, wait. He was sixteen.

"You can't do it without my acceptance of it," Sirius said triumphantly.

He remembered that much from his endless lessons growing up. You couldn't just sign on behalf of sixteen-year-olds in contracts. Something about your magic almost being matured (though why the age wasn't seventeen when your magic actually had matured, Sirius didn't know and he wasn't going to question it because it was very much working out in his favour at the minute). It was also something about ancient laws about if you were the last of your line or something you technically had to uphold it with full responsibilities and apparently sixteen was the perfect age for you to deal with it or something. Look, Wizarding Laws didn't make the most sense, okay? Especially the older ones that people never got around to repealing.

What mattered was this whole betrothal nonsense wasn't going to happen. It wasn't. He wouldn't let it!

"None of this has anything to do with me being betrothed!" Sirius exclaimed.

Everyone already knew the type of people he hung around with, much to his extended family's disgust. This information was nothing new to them.

Father's hands slammed down onto the table, making everything rattle.

"It has everything to do with you being betrothed!"

And, he had officially lost him. What in Merlin's name was he talking about? He wasn't making any sense.

"Do you realise what effect your actions have on the Black Family, do you?"

Sirius rolled his eyes. That was a very bad idea. Very, very bad.

He didn't remember being conscious after that.

Sunday 4th July 1976

Potter Manor, 11:00

"Dad!" James complained but he was laughing. "You're not supposed to do that!"

"You need to be prepared for anything on the Quidditch Pitch, Jamie."

"Yeah, but I don't think most people juggle multiple quaffles!"

"You never know."

Fleamont Potter rarely got onto a broom these days. He was either too tired or too old depending on how he felt. But when he did, he always made sure to have lots of fun. As ardent a Quidditch supporter he was, he couldn't exactly play the game himself.

Case in point, he was juggling the quaffles. James didn't even know where he got the extra quaffles because he was pretty sure only one was brought out.

"Think fast!" he said and launched one at James.

It was too low and he had to dive for it but he caught it.

"Nice," Fleamont complicated. "Now this!"

The second was thrown straight at his chest. A quick twist (in which his shoulder cracked in a way he was pretty sure it wasn't supposed to) and je caught that one two.

That's how father and son spent the rest of the morning. James loved it, he got to spend time with his dad and improve on his Chaser skills. Win win.

It was nice to do simple, fun things like this. Especially on such a lovely summer day. This is what life was meant to be like. Hanging out and having fun and just talking about whatever came to mind from the silly to the normal to the serious.

Speaking of serious things to talk about, there had been something on his mind. Something he had been struggling with.

"Dad," James said, biting his lip, suddenly not know how to say what he wanted to say.

"Hmm?"

His dad was now trying to shoot a goal. Unfortunately, his aim really wasn't that good at all. Which was normally amusing but James wanted him to focus on him, not the goals.

"Can I talk to you about something?"

Fleamont vanished the two extra quaffles he had and hovered next to him as if he could sense that James had something more serious than Chaser manoeuvres, he wanted to talk about. But he didn't say anything easier, as if he knew that pushing James would just make him get blocked out. James had done it before. He didn't like to talk about something until he thought about it for himself first.

His dad's presence didn't make James feel pressured in any way. He knew that Fleamont would stay and wait for James to talk for as long as he needed. He was cool like that.

Too bad what James was trying to get up the nerve to explain wasn't that cool. Actually, it wasn't cool at all. Not even a little bit. What was his dad going to think of him? Maybe he shouldn't say anything. No. That was being cowardly. And he did need help.

Taking a deep breath, James asked, "What would you say if I had done something really stupid like hang someone upside down by his ankle in front of loads of people?"

There. He had said it. It was out there. Dad's face looked carefully blank.

"Had this person done something to deserve this treatment?"

"I don't think anyone deserves that treatment," James muttered before shaking his head and saying in a slightly louder voice, "No. He hadn't. He was just there."

And Sirius was bored but he wasn't going to bring that up. Fleamont was giving him a disappointed look that made his insides twist and turn.

"Then I would say that that isn't very nice. Actually, it's not nice at all."

James already knew that and his dad stating that just made it feel worse. Though, he supposed that he deserved it. He really hadn't been very nice. He was starting to see that now. Though, he wasn't the only one who had been doing something wrong!

"What if the person that this happened to wasn't very nice?"

Because Snape wasn't entirely innocent. Well, he had been for that incident but James meant in general. Snape just wasn't very nice sometimes. Dangerous even, with his knowledge of curses and disdainful attitude.

"It's not your job to correct people," he got scolded. "That's the adults job."

"But they didn't notice any of it!"

"Then you bring it to their notice!"

But teachers never did anything about these sorts of things. Loss of points and detentions did absolutely nothing. But that wasn't what adults liked to hear.

James sighed heavily and ran his hand through his hair. He had done it so much in the last twenty minutes that it was standing even more on end than usual.

"What can I do about it? If, you know, I wanted to sort things out?"

"Then I'd say that you had to fix it."

"I've apologised," James offered.

Fleamont nodded. "That's a good start."

"Start?" James asked, bewildered. What else did he have to do? He was sorry and he said he was. That was supposed to be it, wasn't it?

Obviously, this whole thought process had played out very clearly across his face as his dad shook his head at him.

"James, an apology doesn't automatically make things all better."

"Why not? It's like saying you were wrong and they were right."

"But you don't actually say that. And words don't automatic make things all better."

"Then how can I fix it?" James demanded.

He wanted to fix this. He did. He could. He just... well, he just had to know what to do and then he would fix everything.

"Actions speak louder than words, Jimmy," he was told. "Words are easily forgotten. People make them meaningless."

"Then how do you make them mean something?"

"By proving they do," Fleamont said simply.

James frowned. How was he supposed to do that?

Wednesday 7th July 1976

Evans House, 17:30

"Have you got any plans with your friends this summer?" Gavin asked over dinner. "Your mother and I were thinking of taking a trip to London."

That perked Lily up from her sleepy stupor.

"Oh, really?"

She hadn't really been to London. Only to King's Cross Station because of school. Which didn't really count as visiting London in Lily's opinion. Mainly because she barely saw the station as well because they were always rushing through it. She didn't think she could tell anyone what it actually looked like.

"Yes," Rosemary confirmed. "You girls are now older. You're at an age where we think you would all appreciate all of what London has to offer."

"Except the nightlife," Gavin jokingly added just to get a disapproving look from his wife.

Lily giggled. Her parents were funny. Of course, they wouldn't even think of going to clubs. Though Tuney was eighteen now so maybe she would be interested? Petunia didn't seem to be the partying type though...

"So, your friends," Gavin prompted again.

"I don't know," Lily replied, absentmindedly trailing her spoon through her bowl of cereal. She liked to wait for it to get a little soft. "Marlene said she wanted to have me over."

Rosemary gave her husband a pointed look. Gavin coughed.

"I don't think that's a good idea, sweetheart."

That made Lily look up sharply.

"Why not?"

"Because... well, it's not exactly safe to go over there."

That got her frowning. What did that even mean? Were her parents suddenly scared of magic or something?

"How?"

"The conflict that's going over there, remember?"

Oh yeah. "The Troubles" people were calling it, if she remembered right. People were killing each other over... well, she wasn't entirely sure what. Religion? Rights? Political reasons? It was a bit unclear.

"But I thought that there was supposed to be a ceasefire and talks and stuff?"

It had been all over the news every time she had been home. The government had really been trying to sort Northern Ireland out.

Gavin shook his head and had a grimace look on his face.

"That didn't work out. It seems to have made things worse. There's more talks going on but no one can agree on anything."

"I wouldn't feel safe with you going over there," Rosemary broke in.

"But you let me go over a few years ago! I was safe then. Nothing happened."

She just heard of an awful lot of violence on the radio the McKinnons kept tuned to Muggle radio stations. But nothing happened on the McKinnon Farm. Except for their scorched shed but she wasn't going to tell her parents about that. It hadn't happened when she was over there anything.

"Well, we didn't realise how bad it was, Lily."

"How bad even is it anyway?"

She didn't exactly keep track of events in Northern Ireland. It wasn't like it affected her here.

Another silent conversation passed between her parents.

"It's bad, Lily," Gavin finally said.

"But I'd be safe with Marlene!"

She didn't think that muggles stood much of a chance against all the adult witches and wizards where at the McKinnon Farm.

Rosemary shook her head. "I wouldn't feel safe at all with you over there. No, Lily. Not this year."

"But-"

"Don't argue with your mother," Gavin warned.

"You can invite Marlene over here," Rosemary told her. "We don't mind that. She's a nice girl."

Lily sighed. Yes, it would be nice to have Marlene over - of course it would be. But it wouldn't be the same. Being on a farm was so different, and more fun, than hanging about her neighbourhood.

But if she didn't accept it, she wouldn't get to see Marlene at all.

"Okay," she reluctantly agreed.

Her parents gave her approving smiles. It was better than nothing, she supposed.

Lily spooned a mouthful of cereal into her mouth and frowned. Great. It had gone soggy!

Saturday 10th July 1976

Longbottom Manor, 16:30

Alice sighed and tried not to scuff her feet on the floor. No matter how doleful she felt. Which was silly because she should be all happy.

"Alice," Mrs Longbottom called her over.

She and her family had been invited over to Longbottom Manor for dinner, which would have been nice if things weren't still a bit awkward between their parents. They hadn't even had dinner yet. Alice wasn't sure she wanted to be at the dinner table anymore- not if the atmosphere was going to be all frosty.

"Yes, Mrs Longbottom?" she asked politely, trying not to fidget.

Was she going to be told off for her parents' misbehaviour? Her behaviour? She had been trying to kind of stay in the background, not be noticed.

"Come sit," she was told, gesturing into a living room.

It wasn't the formal parlour like they had been originally invited into. No, this one looked to be the more informal, family living room. The one guests weren't usually invited into.

What would her parents say? Would they approve? Was it really proper? Not that it mattered, Mrs Longbottom was their host, they had to do as they were told. Which was why her parents were on a tour of the flower beds with Mr Longbottom.

Alice perched herself on the edge of the sofa, hands folded on her lap. More to prevent her from fidgeting than anything else really. Mrs Longbottom sat next to her rather than the chair across from her.

"How are you doing?"

She couldn't help it stare at the older woman. That was the last thing she expected to hear come from her.

"I'm doing well."

That didn't sound too convincing to Alice but hopefully Mrs Longbottom believed it. The sympathetic look she got in return said she very much didn't.

"There have been a lot of changes recently, haven't there?"

Sometimes Alice wished she wasn't a lady so she could snort. Because "a lot of changes" was very much stating the obvious. But, because she was a lady, she merely agreed.

"Yes, there has."

Never in a million years would she have imagined buying a uniform for her sixth and seventh year at Hogwarts. And supplies, don't forget about supplies but that list hadn't come yet.

"How are you feeling about it?"

Ah. Now, how was she supposed to respond to that? Polite? The truth? Alice looked at Mrs Longbottom (who always looked rather stern no matter what she was feeling) and decided that a mix of both was probably best. The woman could sense a lie from a mile away, she was convinced.

"Okay. Excited. Nervous."

And anxious as well. Because what if she didn't do well? What if she didn't understand anything? What if she had no friends? She knew Mary was going back (but that was only because her betrothed was the same age and her parents didn't want her to get married until she was eighteen or nineteen) but what about her other friends - not that there was a lot of them. But most of them came from families that didn't put their girls through the NEWT exams.

"About going to school? We don't want to feel like we are pressuring you into this but we do feel that education is important, especially when you're young."

Alice shook her head. "It's fine, Mrs Longbottom, really. I, well, I kind of wanted to stay on in school."

Her future mother-in-law's eyebrows rose. "Really?"

"Yes, ma'am. Well, I did once I realised it was actually an option," she replied truthfully.

That got her a sympathetic look.

"So, what are you worried about if it isn't about going to school?"

"I just don't think I'll do very well," Alice confided one of her fears.

She hadn't been able to do so with her parents because they would just jump on it as a reason for her not to go back to Hogwarts.

"Oh?"

"I'm not one of the best students. Lime Frank," Alice confessed. "Another two hears of education might just be wasted on me."

Mrs Longbottom puffed up with pride at the mention of how smart Frank was and then frowned and shook her head. "It doesn't matter how well you do, just that you tried. Education is never wasted."

Alice wasn't really convinced at that. Surely if you were going to do something you had to be one of the best? It would be rather pointless, otherwise, right?

Mrs Longbottom seemed to guess her thoughts. "As long as you're doing your best, that's all we can really ask for, isn't it? It's not like you can do Frank's best. You're not Frank. Or your friend, Mary's best because your Alice."

That made her feel a bit better about it. It was true, she supposed. She could only do her best, no one else's.

"And you're not a poor student, Alice, from what I've heard. You seem to be quite a good one."

Now, that just wasn't true at all. Who had told her that? Alice didn't consider herself very intelligent at all. Definitely not a good student. But she wasn't going to tell Mrs Longbottom that, she had been so nice to her today. It was time to put on a smile and just be polite.

"I suppose so, ma'am."

Monday 12th July 1976

McKinnon Farm, 09:00

Marlene frowned at the letter from Lily she had just received.

"What's wrong with your face?" Patrick asked as he buttered some toast.

Yuck, it was basically dripping in butter. Why did he have to eat it like that?

"Lily won't be able to come over," she grumbled, folding the letter up. "Her parents won't let her come because of all the troubles that's going on."

"I don't really blame them," Mary said, shaking her head. "It's really bad now."

"But we're not a part of it at all," Patrick complained. "It's the muggles!"

"Lily's parents are muggles," Marlene reminded him. "That's all they probably see of Northern Ireland on the news."

"Can't we show them that it's, okay?"

Marlene had to hide a smile. She found it hilarious that her family looked forward to seeing Lily just as much as she did.

"You can't kidnap muggles, Pat!"

"It wouldn't be kidnapping exactly..."

"No. Lily will just not be coming over this summer."

"Aw!"

"It is a shame that we won't get to see her, though," Mary said. "She's dead on."

Marlene winced. "Oh, don't use slang, mum."

It was embarrassing. And sounded really weird coming from her mum. Not right at all. She was old, after all. Old people shouldn't use slang.

"Hey, I'm 'with it'."

All the McKinnon children shuddered.

"You're really not," Teagan told her, only to earn a cuff around the back of the head.

"None of that cheek, now."

"I'm an adult, mum!"

"I'm still your mother."

Marlene chuckled and opened the letter again to reread the paragraph she wanted. "She says that I can come over to hers."

"That's nice. At least you'll see each other."

"Yeah."

"And you'll be able to get out of the house a bit," her dad added.

That was true. Her parents didn't like any of them going over to the local town anymore in case trouble flared up that they couldn't easily get out of. Mainly Marlene because she couldn't apparate yet. If trouble started, she'd have a real hard time of it. Hopefully she'd be able to apparate by next summer - Hogwarts offered lessons to sixth years.

"It will be fun," Marlene said decisively. "Anyone got a quill?"

Friday 16th June 1976

Evans House, 13:30

"Want to go to the park?" Chryssie asked, sticking her head into hers and Lily's bedroom.

Lily was on her bed, reading. Something Chryssie didn't understand. They did enough of that at school to do it over the summer as well (except for homework, of course).

"I think I'll pass," she replied, not looking up from her book.

"You haven't gone to the park once this summer," Chryssie observed.

Because it was true, now that she thought about it. Originally, she had just been exaggerating because that was always fun but on further thought, Lily really hadn't. How had she not noticed it before? Lily loved the park, especially since the flower beds had been done up.

"So?"

"So, it's lovely outside and there's an ice cream van over there. Why wouldn't you go to the park?"

Lily looked up from her book. "Well, I'm not stopping you."

"But that's boring," Chryssie complained. "I want some company."

"Ask Tuney."

Chryssie scrunched up her nose. No thank you. That wasn't a good idea. Petunia had been quite firm in not wanting to spend any time with her sisters at all. Demanding on the very first day back that neither of them have anything to do with her. So that was definitely out.

"Oh, please!"

"No."

"Why not?"

"I just don't want to."

Wednesday 21st July 1976

Evans House, 16:00

"Haven't seen or heard much of Severus this summer," Rosemary said conversationally as she peeled potatoes.

Lily looked at her mother and shrugged. "I guess."

"Has he actually gone on a holiday this year?"

"No. I don't think so."

That got her mum's eyebrows shooting up. "You don't think so?"

"No?"

"I would have thought you would know if one of your best friends had gone on holiday..."

Lily couldn't help but flinch at that, something her mother couldn't fail to pick up.

"Has something happened between you two?"

"Something like that," Lily muttered, fidgeting with his hands.

"Must be something big if you're not talking to each other."

Why did adults have to be so nosy? And so accurate when they were being nosy?

"I kinda is..."

"Oh?"

Lily looked up from her hands to see am extremely curious look on her mum's face. The look that meant she wasn't going to leave this alone. Well, too bad because she didn't want to talk about it. She never wanted to talk about it.

"Was it something silly? Or actually hurtful?"

She couldn't help but bristle at that question. Silly? It certainly wasn't over something silly. She wouldn't just not talk to her supposed best friend over something silly.

"He called me a Mudblood, mum. It's like calling a coloured person a, you know, the n-word."

She said that last bit in a hushed tone, even though she didn't actually say the word. It just wasn't a nice word at all. A horrible one, really. Just like Mudblood was.

"That bad?"

"Uh huh."

And she still felt betrayed and miserable every time she thought about it. So, she just didn't think about it. Or tried not to anyway. Couldn't her mum just understand that?

Thankfully, she did and didn't ask anything more about it. Lily went to grab the bag of frozen put to put into a pot. She could feel her mother's gaze on her but if she wasn't going to ask any questions, Lily certainly wasn't going to volunteer any information.

"Want me to put these on now?" she asked as the lease hit the bowl.

That snapped Rosemary out of her curiosity and she shook her head.

"Not yet. Your dad finishes at half five tonight so I'll put them on when he's home."

Saturday 24th July 1976

12 Grimmauld Place, 16:30

That was it. He had it. No more. No way. He couldn't do this anymore. He just couldn't.

The shouting and the screaming and the near constant punishments. As if any of that would change his mind. It wouldn't. It wouldn't!

And then there was the training. The teaching of magic that had no other point than to cause pain and chaos. It didn't sit well with Sirius at all especially since his father had been pushing him to find appropriate test subjects. Using the House Elves had been bad enough. He didn't want to inflict pain. Not for no reason.

So, he just had to get away. Far, far away. Just leave and not come back if that was possible. At least for this summer. Next summer he would be seventeen and he could leave without fear of being dragged back. But even though that was the risk now he would just have to risk it. He had to go. Now.

Adjusting his backpack over his shoulders, Sirius paused outside of Regulus' room.

Regulus. What about Regulus? It wasn't fair to just leave him here with their parents, even if his younger brother was better behaved than he was. It wouldn't be right. Not at all. What if they turned on him when Sirius left? Had that happened during the last holidays? Regulus hadn't said anything to him but Regulus didn't do much of that at all these days.

Sirius paused briefly and then made up his mind. Knocking on the door (Regulus was particular about that) he pushed it open, not waiting for a response. Good thing to because he wasn't there. Huh.

With a shrug, Sirius continued down the stairs, trying very hard to not be noticed. Just as he got to the ground floor a voice made him jump.

"You're leaving again."

Sirius put his hands to his heart. It was only Regulus.

"Yes," he replied, not seeing the point in lying.

It was very obvious after all. Regulus gave him a disapproving look.

"Why?"

"Because I can't stand it anymore."

Literally. His legs and back ached from his last punishment. Sitting down would be a very nice thing. With a lot of cushions.

"Come with me," he added impulsively, even though he didn't know where he was going.

Regulus looked at his brother, who had blood still streaming from his nose - it was staining his shirt - and shook his head. He couldn't leave. Wouldn't leave. He wouldn't just leave his family like this. Just storming off when things didn't suit. And it wasn't his problem anyway. He wasn't the one who had problems with their parents. Just Sirius and that was because he was being ornery and didn't see the bigger picture. Or any picture except for the one he had crudely made. Which was ridiculous. Sirius was ridiculous.

"No."

His brother actually looked bewildered by his response. Really? Why on earth would he agree with Sirius? See? Ridiculous. Bordering into stupid territory, actually.

"What, why?"

"I thought you were supposed to be a Gryffindor," he said coldly, not deigning Sirius with a response.

Sirius' face quickly went from eager and hopeful to closed off. It was just like a mask had slipped itself over his face. It was actually kind of terrifying. Sirius didn't use that technique often.

"And where do you think you're going."

Even though it wasn't directed at him, their father's voice sent chills down Regulus' spine. Even after all these years, he didn't think he'd ever heard his father say something more dangerously. It actually scared him.

"Out." Sirius said curtly, not turning around.

There was a slight catch in his voice, Regulus noticed.

"Oh no you're not."

"I am." Sirius said firmly. "And 8m not coming back."

What happened next was all a bit of a blur for Regulus. Whether it was because everything happened so fast - which it didn't really - or because his brain tried to block it out. He didn't know.

First there was shouting which devolved into Sirius cursing -language not magic - which made father do proper cursing. Sirius ducked and dodged, obviously not wanting to accept his due punishment for such disrespect.

Actually, he became even more disrespectful as he started to throw things at their father. Breakable things.

Now there was shouting and shattering and Regulus had never seen father so, so furious before. He looked like he wanted to harm Sirius. Actually harm him. It scared Regulus.

What also scared him was the blood that appeared. From Sirius, though father had a cut on his face where Sirius managed to catch him with a plate. But Sirius was very much bleeding from whatever curse father had cast. It had to be very painful as Sirius actually doubled down. It was like father was out of control.

So out of control that a blast of magic came from him which threw Sirius across the room and made Regulus stumble into a chair.

'CRACK' went Sirius against a bookcase with a glass front. Then he fell limply to the floor, not moving. Regulus' heart was in his throat.

Their father loomed over him; wand still raised. Then Sirius' hands made a weak movement and then he rasped something out. Regulus didn't catch what. But it bad to be a spell or something because whatever was in his hand glowed blue and then he glowed blue.

And then Sirius was gone. Mother let loose an enraged shriek that definitely could shatter glass. Regulus didn't pay this any attention, however, instead looked on at the spot Sirius disappeared from.

He was really gone.

And that's it for Marauders: Growing Up. The first chapter of the next in the series, Marauders: Fighting Back, should be up now so please check it out if you want to see what happens next to Sirius. Thank you so much everyone for all the reviews and favourites and story alerts, I've really appreciated each and every one.