"I won't wear them!" Sirius shouted out from under his bed - his go-to hiding spot when being pursued for one of his many misdemeanours. The subject of today's crime was a pair of smart, black leather lace-up shoes which Sirius had loudly declared several times to his governess that he was absolutely not going to wear.
Ida Knowles, his increasingly-frustrated governess, folded her arms across her chest in an attempt to emulate the stern, commanding image of her employer and Sirius's mother, Walburga Black.
"Really, Sirius, all this over a pair of shoes?" Ida asked in an as authoritative a voice as she could muster, given her tender age and lack of experience in her post. "Come out of there now and put them on, please"
"They're stupid and ugly and I'm not wearing them!" came Sirius's muffled, determined voice from under the bed.
Ida sighed hopelessly. Time was against her. Mrs Black was expecting both of her sons to be present in the drawing room in fifteen minutes, ready for the imminent arrival of the expected relatives. And she would expect the pair of them to be properly dressed in the robes she'd had specially made for the pair of them in honour of the occasion - with matching shoes.
"You wouldn't want me to fetch your mother, would you, Sirius?"
It was a line Ida tried her best not to use too often, but Sirius could be such a stubborn, difficult child to deal with, and the only thing that would coerce the boy into obeying other than the actual presence of his mother was the threat to have her brought to do battle with him herself. A battle which Sirius knew very well he would never win.
"You know she's expecting you and Regulus downstairs in a few minutes, ready for when your grandparents arrive" Ida suppressed a sneaky smirk."I wonder what you'll tell her when she asks why your brother is wearing his smart new shoes and you aren't?"
Silence from under the bed. Ida held her breath as she waited for Sirius's reaction. A slight, unsure shuffling noise was the only sound which came from under the bed.
Ida smiled triumphantly to herself. The threat of the displeasure of Walburga Black was enough to subdue anyone to obedience.
"Now, how about you come out of there and finish getting dressed?' Ida asked firmly.
There was a moment's silence just long enough to make Ida wonder if she was going to have to ask again - before the eight-year-old boy finally crawled, slowly but surely, out from under the bed.
"Good" Ida smoothed down her young chargers creased robes. She took out her wand, gave it a flick and the dreaded pair of shoes flew into the room and landed at Sirius's feet, the black leather shining in the light. "Now, put your shoes on and we'll go and fetch your brother and go downstairs"
Sirius didn't move. He froze to the spot, his shoulders tensed and his fists clenched as he stared down at the shoes with a burning hatred evident in his stormy grey eyes.
"Come on, Sirius, put them on, please"
Finally, Sirius slowly slipped each of his socked feet into a shoe. And then he froze again.
Ida observed him, curiously.
"Aren't you going to tie them?" she asked, eyeing the limp laces.
Sirius continued to stare downward furiously. His silence offered more answers than he he surely would have liked.
Realisation dawned on Ida.
"You don't know how to tie your shoes?" she asked, softly.
Sirius tried to bolt for the door. Ida instinctively reached out to grab him and her hand closed around his arm just in time to save him from falling to the floor as he tripped over his own still-untied laces in his haste.
"Sirius, wait" Ida pulled him gently back towards her and held him by his shoulders - a token gesture, for the boy seemed to know when he was well and truly caught.
"Did no one ever teach you to tie them?"
Sirius did not try to run again, but nor could be bring himself to speak a reply. He shook his head once, his face flushed red with anger or embarrassment (or both, perhaps).
Ida sighed sympathetically. Sirius was eight years old - how could it be that no one had taught him this basic life skill yet?
"Did you last governess not teach you?"
Sirius shook his head again, still refusing to look up at Ida.
"She said it wasn't worth the hassle" he muttered, his cheeks reddening further.
Ida's stomach gave a guilty jolt. Sirius was far from an easy child to deal with - how many times had she herself sighed hopelessly at the thought of a task which risked another of Sirius's famous fits of temper brewing?
She envisioned her predecessor - the stern, portly old matron of a woman that they boys had described to her - giving an impatient flick of her wand for the boy's laces to tie themselves into neat bows and save herself a few precious minutes of time and sparing herself the hassle of having to deal with a child who so struggled to admit there was something he didn't know, let alone submit to being taught how to do it.
Had the boys' mother not even realised that he sons hadn't been taught how to tie their shoes?
Far from the first time in her limited time in the Black household, Ida shook her head at the tragic detachment between the parents and children of the house - so alien compared to the close-knit family she herself had been raised in.
"Right," Ida said determinedly. She sank to her knees, putting herself on Sirius's level. "Watch me closely. I'll tie them for you once, and then we'll untie them and do it again together. And then you can do them again on your own. Alright?"
To her surprise, Sirius did not pull away and shout his angry protests. His grey eyes flickered up from the floor and he nodded in a way which one could almost call meek. Ida hadn't thought he was capable of such a look.
She smiled kindly at him and began their lesson.
Ten minutes later, Sirius's shoes were tied for the third and final time - at last by his own hesitant, shaking fingers.
"Well done, you did it!" Ida grinned at him, and was surprised to receive a slight sweet smile in reply - a first.
What wonders one could find if one devoted the effort into finding them.
"Now, come on, let's go fetch your brother and go downstairs"
Ida held out her hand, and Sirius took it.
"Ida?" said Sirius suddenly before they'd reached the door.
"Yes?" Ida looked down at him.
"Thanks"
His voice was quiet, shy, the opposite of everything Ida had come to expect from her young charge. It filled her with a warm, satisfying sensation.
"You're welcome, Sirius"