31st December 1969

Sirius sat with her family in the drawing room, Andromeda next to her. They were waiting for the New Year to arrive, and all of them except her and Regulus were sipping glasses of aged firewhiskey.

Her mother was sat with a tired Regulus leaning against her side, with her arm around his shoulder. Her brother was such a baby; Sirius had never done anything like that when she was eight. In fact, she couldn't ever remember doing anything like that ever. Her mother always seemed more free with her affection with Regulus.

The conversation was rather boring, and more than once she had asked to go upstairs to her room, but her mother had sharply told her no. The evening had started off with them all complaining about the loud noises and bright, colourful lights that the muggles made at New Year. Sirius thought it was all quite exciting, and last year had sat at her window in the dark, watching the lights being set off in the square.

It had made her wonder why everyone always said muggles were so stupid and slow, if they could do all that without magic. She had asked Great Aunt Elladora, who had given her a whack round the back of the knees with her walking stick and told her she was too clever and too well-bred to ask such stupid questions.

Now, however, the talk in the room had changed. She knew that there had been another muggle attack in the Daily Prophet, having stolen it from her father's place at the head of the dining table after lunch that day.

The attacks had started last winter; this one was was the third this year. They were all done by some rogue wizard calling himself Lord Voldemort. To Sirius, that name sounded as pompous as 'the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black', but this man seemed truly insane. He wasn't even trying to hide that the attacks were done by him and his small band of followers, leaving a great ugly sign of a skull with a snake in its mouth over the house of each of the murders.

"The Ministry will catch him soon," Sirius' father was shaking his head. "The madman will be in Azkaban before the end of next year,"

"More's the pity," Great Aunt Elladora tutted. "This man Voldemort might be mad, but at least he's doing something against the filth that riddle this country,"

Sirius' mother nodded in agreement.

"I don't see anyone else even trying,"

"I'm afraid he's going about it completely the wrong way, Aunt," Her father said with a rather stern look at his wife. "The fool is turning more and more people towards the side of the muggles by making them into victims. No sane politician, even those who support his cause, would condone brutal murders like these,"

"They would be crucified in the press... lose their office," Uncle Cygnus nodded along. He tended to agree with whatever his elder brother said. He was rather pathetic like that.

"I heard he burns cursed marks into the arms of his followers," Aunt Druella gave a small shudder. "The same as that skull and snake. It all seems quite ritualistic, if you ask me,"

"Who would do that?" Bellatrix tossed her hair, looking amused. "You're stuck with him forever, then. And there's no denying it if you're caught,"

"He really is insane," Uncle Cygnus shook his head.

"There are better ways to achieve what he wants," Sirius' father said. "Ways with considerably more subtlety than this," He read from the paper with cold disdain. "Torturing a muggle with cruciatus, letting his followers rape his wife and daughters in front of him - one of the daughters was a mudblood - killing them, then him too,"

Great Aunt Elladora cackled to herself, seeming gleeful. Sirius eyed her, rather disturbed - that all seemed like a bit much - though no one else seemed to pay her any notice. To be fair, it wasn't like the woman kept her rather brutal views to herself. But even if it was true that muggles were stupid and violent, they still felt pain didn't they?

She opened her mouth, but someone else got there first.

"He's evil," Andromeda said coldly. Of all of them, she was the only one who sounded like she cared at all for the fate of the people who had died. The others were merely disapproving of Voldemort's methods. "We'd condemn a wizard for treating his animals so brutally,"

"Animals don't force us to hide ourselves and our magic," Sirius' father said, just as cold.

"Muggles are less than animals," Sirius' mother glared viciously. "And mudbloods are a stain on our society. You know this, Andromeda,"

"The mudblood girl who was raped, tortured and killed," Andromeda started. "I knew of her, from Hogwarts. She was a third year. Fourteen, just four years older than Sirius,"

"Why do you care?" It was Bellatrix who spoke this time, from where she lounged beside Narcissa. She didn't seem confrontational, just bemused.

Andromeda opened her mouth, but was interrupted.

"There is no comparison, Andromeda," Aunt Druella hastily cut in, speaking kindly. "It's a nasty business, that's for sure, but it's not for the likes of us to worry about,"

"I've said it before," Great Aunt Elladora pointed a gnarled finger. "That's the danger of allowing mudbloods into Hogwarts. It's easy to fall into the trap of seeing them alongside true witches and wizards and start to think they belong, that we're the same, when they're not,"

That didn't sound right to Sirius.

"That's very true," Uncle Cygnus said. "You know it's gone too far when even girls of the purest blood, like our Andromeda, are getting confused,"

The look Andromeda shot her father at that rather patronising comment was fit to burn a hole through his head.

"The same thing happened with your brother," Great Aunt Elladora warned. "You've got a far better head on your shoulders than Alphard, Dromeda, but even so. Careful," She turned to Sirius' father. "I told my brother again and again to give his second son a good talking to and shake those foolish ideas out of his head, but did he listen? No, and now we hardly ever see the boy. Why, if we burned him of the tree I bet he wouldn't give a damn,"

"It isn't right," Sirius' mother said strongly. "It isn't proper. I for one am glad this man Voldemort is doing everything he is. Even if he's in Azkaban by this time next year, at least someone out there has their priorities straight,"

Sirius glanced at Andromeda, who had shut her mouth, but her lips were pressed into a thin line and her eyes were flashing. She turned her gaze to the rest of the room. Bellatrix looked rather bored, unbothered by what was being said. Narcissa was sitting as prim and proper as ever; she always struggled to tell what her youngest cousin was thinking. Regulus was glancing between all the adults with an avid look in his eyes, listening intently. Every other face was cold.

She felt rather cold too. It was one thing hearing about how muggles should be ruled over by wizards, and mudbloods segregated from true wizarding society. It was quite another hearing about the brutal rape and murder of a girl not that much older than her, who went to school with her cousins. Mudblood or not, no one deserved that.