"Sirius Orion, will you sit up properly"
This was the fourth time that the sharp command hissed from his mother's lips had sent Sirius hauling himself up from his slouched position in his chair. He huffed a sigh as he did so, only further provoking his mother, who's nostrils flared dangerously at her son's slovenly posture.
As they did every afternoon of their summer trip to Noire House, the Black family of four - Orion, Walburga and their sons, took afternoon tea together, either in the smaller drawing room of the house or outside on the terrace overlooking the landscaped gardens, English summer weather-depending. It was a daily endurance that had begun at home in London at the beginning of the year, a routine set about at Walburga's insistence as a means of ensuring that her growing sons' table manners were being correctly nurtured - or in Sirius's case, that any unsightly weeds threatening to take root were firmly cut away.
As luck would have it, the family had so far been treated to good weather on the majority of the days of their trip and so had been able to take their afternoon tea outside, much to Sirius's relief. Aside from the welcome fresh air instead of the stuffy drawing room, the outside setting offered richer views and more distractions; the twittering of birds in the trees, the scuttling of the occasional squirrel running up a nearby tree. In short, anything capable of averting his attention away from the constant gaze of his mother, carefully inspecting his every move for fault.
So far today he'd racked up a grand total of five faults in his table manners, if one was generous enough to allow each of his three reminders to correct his posture a point each. Additional to these were his scolding for clanging his teaspoon too loudly against his cup whilst stirring and bolting his sandwiches too fast.
Sirius cast an irritated look across the round, wrought-iron tea table at his younger brother. Ever the perfect example, Regulus sat bolt upright in his chair, delicately nibbling on a cucumber sandwich, still only on his second - Regulus's appetite had always been bird-like compared to his elder brother.
Had the younger boy summoned the nerve to lift his eyes up from staring down at his plate, he would have seen his elder brother's moody gaze willing him to do something, anything out of line that might take their mother's attention away from Sirius for a moment's respite from her scrutiny.
In an attempt to placate his growing annoyance, Sirius reached for another sandwich on the towered, silver stand at the centre of the table, pretending not to notice the disapproving glare his mother sent his way in response.
"Don't eat quite so much in one go, Sirius" Walburga had scolded him only yesterday. "You've had three sandwiches already, that is quite enough. Do you want people to think you greedy?"
Quite frankly, Sirius couldn't care one jot what people thought of how many sandwiches he ate. He was hungry after a morning of running about the fields and he wanted them. But he'd forced himself to hold his tongue on the matter, for once, lest his mother forbid him any cake for as a result of his cheekiness.
Walburga sighed in frustration as she reached across the table with her wand and vacuumed up the spray of crumbs left behind on the tablecloth as Sirius tore roughly at the crust of the bread with his teeth.
Her eyes flickered over to her husband for a moment, as though silently willing him to step in and correct their son's messiness.
In stark contrast to his wife, Orion scarcely seemed to notice whether his sons were sitting up properly or chewing their food properly. His full attention was instead devoted to the book he had levitating beside him, a particularly dull-looking text, from what Sirius could see from across the table, from Arcturus's vast personal collection of magical genealogy studies and records. It was at Walburga's insistence that he be present to help set the right example to their sons that Orion was even sat at the table at all. If he had his way, he would sooner rather take his afternoon tea in the comfort of the library, where, in the absence of his own study at home, he spent most of his free time whilst at Noire House.
Sirius couldn't help but wonder, as he forced himself to nibble far-too-slowly for his liking at a tuna sandwich, that if his father was permitted to keep to his own little world at the table, averting his eyes from the page of his book only to reach for his tea for the occasional sip, then why was he forced to contend with learning how to engage in proper conversation whilst trying to enjoy a meal?
"Sirius Orion!"
His mother's stern hiss abruptly jolted Sirius out of his thoughts.
"What?" he asked, looking across at Walburga.
"Pardon" she corrected him with a hard stare.
"Pardon?" Sirius repeated, the sulky undertone of his voice not going amiss to his mother.
"I asked you what you and your brother have been doing today" said Walburga, stirring her tea so delicately that the silver spoon scarcely clinked against the china.
Sirius shrugged.
"Not much" he said, plainly, hoping his mother wouldn't enquire further.
Every day he hoped, and every day he was denied his wish.
"I hardly believe that" Walburga replied, taking a sip of her tea. The liquid in her cup was dark - the stern-faced witch took her tea strong and sugarless, it's bitter taste un-soothed by the addition of milk. "You were out of the meadows for hours with your brother. What did you play?"
"The usual"
Sirius fiddled with the teaspoon on his saucer absent-mindedly, avoiding his mother's gaze.
Walburga reached over with her wand and tapped the spoon with it's tip. It vanished instantly.
She lifted her teacup and saucer as though to take another sip, but it hovered halfway as she addressed her son again.
"Which is?" she asked, her surface-level pleasantness doing little to hide the warning hidden beneath.
"Same as it was yesterday"
Walburga abruptly lowered her cup and saucer back to the table with a frustrated clang.
"Sirius Orion"
"What?!"
"Enough"
Orion's firm voice subdued the rising anger of both mother and son. He rarely partook in conversation at tea and often his only words spoken were to reign in the tempers of his wife and elder son.
"Sirius, stop being cheeky and answer your mother properly" said Orion, shooting a warning glare across the table at Sirius, who met his gaze for a moment before sullenly looking down at his teacup again.
"We just... played in the forest" he said with a sigh. "That's all"
"Is it really?" asked Walburga, her voice forcibly calm again.
"Yes" Sirius answered, reaching for a biscuit on the silver platter beside the sandwiches.
He nibbled at it, more delicately than he might have if he weren't trying to conceal something from his mother. A nervous tick she knew all too well.
"Regulus" said Walburga, turning to her younger son, who stared up at her, wide-eyed at being addressed directly. "Did you and your brother play in the forest today?"
"Yes, Mama" Regulus instantly replied.
Sirius resisted the urge to roll his eyes at his brother's automatic politeness.
"And what did you do afterwards?" Walburga asked the boy, who's eyes grew wider in a moment of panic. She did not miss the way his grey orbs darted across to his elder brother for a second before he answered her question.
"We went and saw the crups" Regulus confessed, never one to dream of keeping anything from his parents.
Sirius sighed and rested his elbow on the table, his face cupped in his palm sulkily.
The spineless little runt.
"Did you, now?" asked Walburga, glancing from one child to the other.
"And why, pray tell, would you want to do that? Spending such a lovely afternoon in a stuffy, dirty kennel block?"
Regulus had opened his mouth, no doubt to blurt out the entirety of Sirius's plans in one, long, traitorous breath, but his elder brother jumped in to answer first.
"We just wanted to look at them" Sirius loudly interrupted. "After all, doesn't Grandfather have one of the best kennels in England?"
"That is true" Walburga replied, carefully watching her son. "His dogs have taken the Westminster Best in Breed title for.. how many years in a row was it, Orion?"
"Four" Orion replied, plainly, not looking up from his book as he took a bite out of a ginger newt.
"Ah yes, that was it. A record, I believe"
Sirius took another bite of his biscuit, almost daring to believe that the conversation had steered away from the exact nature of their intentions by visiting the crup kennels.
"And then we went round the back and found a shed with cruppies!" piped up Regulus, visibly more at ease now the tension between his mother and brother had subsided.
"Reg!" Sirius snapped in annoyance. Why did his little brother have to be so honest all the time?
"Oh?" Walburga raised a curious eyebrow at Sirius before tilting her head down at Regulus. "Cruppies, you say?"
Regulus's confidence wavered at his brother's annoyed tone, but nodded at his mother nonetheless.
"Yes, there were six of them" Regulus continued, unable to keep quiet now that the floodgates of his confessions had opened.
"Well I hope you didn't get too close" said Walburga, taking another sip of her tea. "Mother crups are fiercely protective of their pups"
Regulus went silent. He looked away from his mother, unable to hold her gaze.
"Regulus" Walburga's voice hardened instantly at her younger son's lack of reply. "You didn't get too close to the crups, did you?"
Regulus bit his lip, a habit he had been scolded out of, aside from fits of anxiousness.
"Yes, Mama..." Regulus replied with a shake of his head, his voice quiet. He stared down at his lap, avoiding both the disapproving gaze of his mother and the angry glare from his elder brother. "We did"
"How close, precisely?" Walburga asked sharply, turning to fix Sirius with an expectant stare.
Sirius tried to district himself by taking another bite of the biscuit in his hand, only to find it vanish from his fingers before he could get it half way to his mouth.
"Answer me, Sirius Orion" Walburga ordered her son, lowering her wand again.
"We did go inside the hut..." Sirius began, cautiously. "But she let us! Honest, Mama, she let us stroke them!"
"How could you both be so foolish?!" Walburga snapped, nostrils flaring angrily.
Regulus seemed to shrink down a little in his seat.
Orion's eyes flickered up from his book at the commotion, a flash of annoyance crossing over his face.
"What's all this?" he said, closing the book floating beside him with a wave of his hand and leaning forward.
"Your sons have foolishly been putting themselves in danger" said Walburga, crossly. "Pestering a crup and her litter. It's a wonder neither of you were bitten!"
"Is this true, boys?" Orion asked, sternly, looking from one to the other.
Regulus nodded, his big, grey orbs glistening with wetness in the sunlight.
"Yes, Papa" he said, meekly. "We're very sorry"
His elder brother, however, would not be so quick to roll over and beg for forgiveness.
Sirius sat up in his chair, straight and defiant, ready to argue his case.
"We did, Papa, but she let us!" he protested. "The mother crup was fine with us. I did the trick with the biscuits-"
"And who taught you how to do that?" Orion asked, unphased by his son's outburst, in stark contrast to his wife's clearly simmering, silent anger.
Sirius faltered. He shrunk slightly, dithering. As much as he didn't want to get into trouble himself, he didn't want to get the old kennel manager into trouble either.
"Sirius" said Orion, sharply. "Who taught you how to gain a crups' confidence?"
"Read it in a book, last week" Sirius mumbled. The lie was a weak one and he knew it. As clearly as he knew how much his parents detested lying.
"It was the kennel manager, wasn't it?" asked Orion. "The halfblood"
Sirius felt his face flush, as it always did when he was caught telling a bare-faced lie.
Orion did not require further, verbal confirmation.
"Both of you are to stay away from the crup kennels in future" said Orion, firmly. "Is that understood?"
Regulus nodded up at his father, his eyes still shining wetly.
"Yes, Papa" he replied, the perfect image of remorse.
Orion turned to look at Sirius, who scowled in distaste at his father's orders.
"Sirius?" Orion prompted the boy, fixing him with a cold, hard stare.
"But-!"
Orion's eyes flashed dangerously.
Resistance was futile and Sirius knew it. But he could never admit defeat without even a token fight.
"Yes, Papa" he finally muttered, staring across the table at the platter of sandwiches.
He slouched down in his seat, sulkily.
Walburga, her temper curbed now that her children had been suitably chastised for their trespasses, gave a single, sharp clap of her hands and the food adorning the table vanished instantly. A moment later, they were replaced by a large Victoria sponge cake, sat atop a shining, silver cake stand with a delicate serpent curling upwards around the neck.
Sirius eyed the cake eagerly, sitting up straight again, all trace of his sulkiness gone.
He watched as his mother delicately cut modest slices of the cake and separated them onto dessert plates before passing them round the table.
To Sirius's horror, however, she had prepared only three slices.
"What about me?"
Sirius looked at his mother, wide-eyed at the injustice of it all.
Walburga sliced away a tiny bite of her slice with her dessert fork before eyeing her son unsympathetically.
"Really, Sirius Orion" she said with a disapproving shake of her head from across the table. "You have behaved sulkily and rudely at the table, you have confessed to behaving irresponsibly and dangerously today-"
"Regulus was there too!" Sirius protested.
Across the table, Regulus sat hunched over, awkwardly picking at the crumbs from his own cake slice with his fork.
"Regulus confessed his wrongdoing and apologised immediately" Walburga said sharply. "You, however, lied to us and then sat there in an unapologetic sulk. I hardly think you deserve any cake today"
Sirius knew that there would be no changing his mother's mind on the matter. He slumped down in his chair again, crossing his arms over his chest in a full-blown strop, giving up all pretence of trying to behave properly at the table.
He averted his gaze beyond the tea table, towards the trees rustling in the light, summer wind. He would not let this be the end of it, he told himself firmly. His parents may think that he was incapable of handling a crup, but they hadn't seen how he had tamed the growling mother earlier that day. That hadn't heard how impressed the kennel manager was with his skill.
Sirius knew what he wanted - a crup of his own to catch his own jarvey with. And he was not about to let something as minor as his parents' disapproval get in his way.
After tea, Walburga had ushered her sons back up to their room to rest before the evening.
Sirius flopped onto his bed, laying on his stomach with his head resting on his arms, moodily.
"Sirius?"
Regulus tiptoed up to his brother's bedside, clearly nervous.
"I'm sorry for telling Mama about visiting the crups..."
Sirius tried to be angry with his brother. He wanted to snap at him that sorry wasn't good enough, that he shouldn't have been such a slimy little snitch in the first place-
But then he glanced across at Regulus, chewing nervously on his bottom lip, his eyes wide with worry over having displeased his brother.
And he couldn't feel angry with him.
"S'fine, Reg" he sighed, tiredly, staring at the wall across the room.
"I suppose... Having a crup isn't all that fun, anyway" said Regulus in an attempt to placate his brother. "And Papa might let you go back on the jarvey hunt next year"
"Who said anything about us not catching our own jarvey this year?" asked Sirius, leaning up to look at his little brother, his brow furrowed questioningly.
"Well... Papa did say we're not to go back there anymore"
"Well Papa doesn't own the crups, Reg. So who says he can decide if we can or can't go and see them?"
Regulus was silent in bafflement. He cocked his head to one side, eyeing Sirius's defiant smirk with a mixture of both curiosity and dread.
"Oh, Sirius, please don't get us into any more trouble" the younger boy pleaded anxiously.
"Relax, Reg, I'm not going to get us into trouble" said Sirius, to Regulus's obvious relief. "I'm simply going to ask grandfather politely. Don't you remember what Ida said?"
Regulus cast his mind back several weeks, to when their governess, Ida Knowles, had given Sirius a talking-to about how he would gain nothing from anybody without asking for it politely.
But alas, their governess was on a rare holiday home to her parents in Dorset and unable to clarify whether this policy included asking for something which they had already been forbidden.
"You're mad, Sirius" Regulus sighed, shaking his head.
"I'm not mad" Sirius replied, flipping himself over to lay on his back, grinning cheekily up at the ceiling. "I just have more fun"
The one downside of the summer holiday to Noire House for Sirius was the daily torture of dinner. From the upstairs rooms they were confined to during this part of the day, Sirius could smell the rich, aromatic scents of the five-course dinner being prepared downstairs in the kitchen by Arcturus's small army of house elves.
Tonight, amongst the smells Sirius's stomach was being driven wild by was the smell of fresh carrot and coriander soup, roasted duck in plum sauce, along with the usual tortures of goose fat-roasted potatoes and seasoned parsnips. In spite of the teatime sandwiches he had filled up on just a few hours ago, his stomach growled with desire.
When Sirius and Regulus's own dinner was served to them by Kreacher, however, in the room adjoined to their bedroom which served as a makeshift day nursery, the silver cover was removed to reveal a much plainer affair of boiled mutton and potatoes with plain vegetables.
"Master Sirius should be more appreciative" snapped Kreacher with a sneer when Sirius wrinkled his nose in distaste at the meal set before him. "He eats far better than lesser mudblood wretches"
"I bet even a mudblood wouldn't want this when there's roast duck downstairs" Sirius grumbled as he took up his fork and speared a carrot lazily resting his cheek one his palm.
Once the rich aromas of the downstairs dinner had finally drifted away, signalling the end of the meal, the two brothers were roused, their robes were smoothed of creases by the fussing house elf (with much tugging away on Sirius's part) and they were herded downstairs to the drawing room for the required evening audience with their grandfather.
As he did every evening, about halfway through the journey through the house to the drawing room, Sirius could see Regulus tensing with nerves. Today, however, those nerves seemed to have an even tighter hold on him than usual.
Grandfather was a formidable man, often sharp and snappy, with a permanently-stern expression that rarely softened in amusement. Regulus never failed to melt into a nervous wreck every evening as he was brought to stand before his ornate armchair by the fireside.
"You need to be braver, Reg" Sirius had urged his brother many times on their way back up to their bedroom. "You being so nervous only makes him more annoyed, can't you see that?"
But if Regulus could see it, attempting to rectify the problem seemed to be beyond him.
As they entered the drawing room, their arrival announced by Kreacher, the low hum of talking between the adults quietened and all eyes turned to the two brothers.
"Ah, boys" Arcturus remarked gruffly by way of greeting to his grandsons.
Taking a puff of his after-dinner cigar, he placed it on the silver ashtray sat on the end table beside his chair. He raised a hand and beckoned the two boys to come and stand before him.
"Good evening, Grandfather" Sirius greeted Arcturus cheerfully as they stood before him by the fireside.
Opposite the fire sat their parents, at opposite ends of the plush, deep-red velvet sofa; Orion, stiffly sipping his glass of port and forcing himself to take the occasional drag of the cigar he never enjoyed but felt obliged to accept the offer of every evening and Walburga delicately yet furiously fluttering her fan in her face in a bid to combat the roasting temperature of the room.
Despite the warm, summer evening temperatures, Arcturus Black insisted on the fire be stoked as fully as thought the house were gripped by the deathly cold of winter.
"Good evening, Sirius. Regulus" Arcturus nodded at each boy in turn, his dull-grey eyes lingering on the younger in wait for a reply.
"G-good evening, Grandfather" Regulus chirped obediently.
Arcturus huffed disapprovingly at the boy's nervous tone.
"Tell me, then" said the aged Black patriarch, sitting back in his armchair and tapping his knarled fingers on the armrest impatiently. "Have you boys been behaving yourselves?"
Sirius felt Regulus stiffen beside him.
He, however, was made of sterner stuff.
"Yes, Grandfather" he said, confidently with a nod.
"Oh really? Is that so?" Arcturus raised an eyebrow at him.
Sirius nodded again.
"It is" said Sirius, giving his brother a side-tap with his elbow.
Regulus glanced up at his elder brother uncertainly.
The left side of his bottom lip disappeared into the grip of his teeth tellingly.
"Is that so, Orion?" Arcturus asked his son, leaning towards him on his arm rest.
Orion's face remained stony, un-telling.
The cigar in his hand hovered over the ashtray on the end table beside him. He flicked a piece of ash off of the end before replying.
"True enough" he answered his father, not meeting his gaze directly.
"And what is that supposed to mean, exactly?" Arcturus barked. "Have they behaved today or haven't they?"
Orion took a stiff sip of his port.
"There was... a minor incident" he said.
From the opposite end of the sofa, Walburga's eyes flashed across to her husband in a look Sirius could not quite place.
"A minor incident" Arcturus repeated, gruffly. "Would you care to explain, boys?"
In contrast to his obviously-unsettled brother , Sirius stood up straighter and looked at his grandfather straight-on.
"Well, yes, there was this one thing..." he began, earning a curious eyebrow-raise from Arcturus, who's fingers continued to tap on his armrest as he listened to his grandson's tale.
"We went to visit the crup kennels this afternoon" said Sirius, quite oblivious to the disapproving looks he was earning from both of his parents as he so brazenly and cheerfully confessed his sins to his grandfather. "Only we could hear them barking from the meadow where we were playing. And since your crups have taken the Best in Breed title four years running-"
Unbeknown to him, Sirius's father smiled internally in amusement at his son's keen gathering of newly-acquired information to his cause.
"-we just couldn't resist going and having a look at them, you see" Sirius was wide-eyed and innocent throughout his speech. A look that neither suited him nor fooled anyone in the room. "We were very careful, Grandfather, honest. We didn't cause any trouble or get in the way"
"I see" grunted Arcturus.
His mouth had curled upwards into a rare smirk of amusement.
Perfect, thought Sirius, fighting to resist his own urge to smirk.
"Except, it wasn't what you got up to inside the kennel block that was amiss, was it, Sirius?"
Sirius's head whirled round to scowl at his mother, who sat, her stare fixated on her firstborn knowingly.
"Oh?" Arcturus, too, glanced in Walburga's direction. "There's more to this tale, is there?"
"Indeed" replied Walburga, her fan sending delicate the few, delicate strands permitted leave from her intricate hairstyle billowing against the pale skin of her neck.
"Well then. Regulus, what have you to say on the matter, hmm?" Arcturus rounded on the younger of his grandsons, who had, until now, remained in mercifully-allowed silence.
Now, under the beady gaze of his grandfather, he seemed to shrink a little.
Regulus glanced upward nervously at Sirius, as though for approval.
He turned back to face his grandfather just a fraction too late to see the disapproving shake of Arcturus's head.
"We... we went- um..." Regulus stammered out the beginning of his sentence cautiously.
"You went where? Speak up, boy" Arcturus barked at the younger brother, who flinched visibly at his sharp tone.
"We heard some strange barking, so we went round the building to investigate" Sirius took over, silencing a grateful Regulus. "And we found the shed with the mother crup and the litter of cruppies"
"Ah, did you now?" said Arcturus, his attention focused solely on Sirius once again.
"Yes" Sirius nodded. "And they were wonderful! We hadn't seen cruppies before. It was brilliant to see then playing in there. I'm sure they'll make great hunters one day"
Arcturus huffed in agreement.
"They'd better" he said. "The dam has the best catch record of the lot and the sire took Best in Show at Westminster last year"
Sirius pushed aside thoughts as to what "dam" and "sire" were supposed to mean in favour of perusing this vital conversation further.
"They definitely looked like they will, Grandfather" Sirius agreed, enthusiastically. "In fact..."
He looked away and shuffled from one foot to the other - a calculated gesture lasting just long enough to ensure the Black patriarch was giving him his full attention.
"I've been thinking, Grandfather..."
"Oh yes? Will wonders never cease?" Arcturus chuckled, drily.
Sirius replied with an obligatory grin, silencing the flash of annoyance within him.
"I've been reading the books in your library, on crup training. And seeing the crups today made me realise that I'd really like to learn more about them. Perhaps even... train one of my own?"
Sirius was so certain that he'd buttered his grandfather up enough to guarantee his request would be granted.
And so, when the aged wizard cackled with laughter at him, he was taken aback.
"Well, now. That is a good one" Arcturus remarked. "Pups training pups. Whatever next?"
Sirius could not keep the indignant scowl off of his face at his grandfather's words.
"But it's true, Grandfather!" he reported, just about managing to keep his tone respectful enough to not aggravate the old man. "I'd really like my own crup. One of the cruppies? Please-"
"No, Sirius"
Orion's sharp words drew his son's attention to him.
"But I can do it!" Sirius protested, his frustration threatening to simmer over, replacing his polite facade. "I know I can!"
"You're too young, boy" Arcturus barked with a dismissive wave of his hand. "In a year or two perhaps, but-"
"I'm ready now!"
"Sirius Orion, do not interrupt your grandfather!" Walburga hissed at her son with a sharp warning glare.
Sirius's gaze flitted helplessly between the three adults surrounding him. Beside him, Regulus was practically trembling with nerves at the row threateningly to erupt as the atmosphere grew more tense with each word thrown about the room.
"But why can't I have one of the cruppies?" Sirius whined, his carefully-constructed facade washed away, the stubborn, frustrated boy beneath free for all to see.
"Because they are working animals, boy" said Arcturus, sharply, leaning forward in his armchair. "Not pets. A child's plaything. You think such a finely-tuned pedigree hunter is going to be content to loll about your playroom once you grow tired of it in a week's time?"
"More to the point, I am not having an unruly creature inside the house" remarked Walburga. "Running amok, causing havoc-"
"Not to mention a crup's insatiable appetite" Arcturus jumped in, cutting off his daughter-in-law. "They will devour absolutely anything, be it meat or carpet. Why do you think they live in kennels and not my house, hmm?"
"But I can train it!"
"Train a crup? You can hardly will yourself to behave, Sirius Orion" Walburga shook her head with a bemused smile.
At her remark, Arcturus let out a gruff chuckle. Sirius's eyes flickered round to look at his father, who was himself suppressing a smile that was indeed a sight rarer to behold than that of his own father's.
Sirius felt annoyance bubble within him at the way the adults were treating his request as more of a joke than a matter to be considered seriously.
"I can so train a crup" Sirius snapped at them, scowling furiously. "I managed something already this afternoon! The mother crup let me stroke the cruppies because I knew how to tame her with the-"
"Aha!" Arcturus exclaimed, suddenly. "The root of the crime, at last. I know for a fact that shed is kept securely locked at all times - valuable creatures, those pups, each one is worth five hundred galleons at least, with their pedigree. Out with it then, boy. How did you get in there? I suppose it was that halfblo-"
"No, it wasn't" Sirius quickly jumped to the kennel manager's defence. "He didn't let us in. I- I opened it. With magic"
"Really, now?" Arcturus's eyebrows shot up in surprise.
Sirius nodded.
"My, my. Quite a feat for a cub too young yet for school"
In any other circumstance, Sirius would have basked in the fact that his grandfather was clearly impressed with him. But not today.
"You see?" he continued his argument with his new line of defence. "I'm clever! I can train a crup, easy!"
"I've said no, and that's final" said Arcturus, seriously, raising a hand to silence his grandson. Now drop this absurd notion. I don't want to hear any more talk of it"
"But-"
"Sirius, that's enough" said Walburga, firmly, glaring with warning at her firstborn. "Now, both of you say goodnight and then off to bed with you"
Sirius was entirely transformed back to his natural state. He slouched as he mumbled his goodnights to his grandfather and parents before skulking off, following the lead of Kreacher, summoned to return his young charges to their bedroom for the night.
Hot on his heels was Regulus, clearly relieved to be out of the snake pit that was their obligatory evening audience.
"I'll help you practice trying to shoot jobberknowls tomorrow if you like?" said the younger boy, tugging at Sirius's robe sleeve.
Sirius couldn't help but smile a little at his brother's attempt to cheer him up.
"No thanks, Reg" he said, his voice low to avoid his words being picked up by Kreacher's oversized, bat-like ears. "I'm going to go visit the cruppies again"
Regulus's face drained of colour, his eyes widening in alarm.
"But Father said you're not allowed to!"
"Good thing I don't plan on telling him, then, isn't it?" Sirius replied, flashing his brother the cheeky smile that the younger boy had come to take as a sign that whatever trouble they might be in now, worse was surely to come.