The reunion was to be held at number twelve Grimmauld Place, on a dreary Saturday afternoon in October, a week before Halloween. The whole morning had been comprised of the house elves scurrying around cooking and cleaning, his mother's yelling getting louder and louder as the time of the reunion drew closer. The entire family would be there even the Malfoys, though no one was exactly sure how far back had become part of the Black family.
Sirius stayed in his room the whole morning as to avoid his mother's screeching voice and short temper, dreading the coming event. He wished he could skip it, just stay up here the entire day, maybe even climb out his window and go play with the Muggle children down the street. Anything but be around his family.
The only thing that was keeping him sane was the thought that he would get to see his cousin Andromeda today. She was the only person that he could talk to, the only person who seemed to really understand his thoughts since they were so different from the rest of the Blacks. To top it all off, she had been Sorted into Gryffindor house at Hogwarts; something that Sirius had wanted for many years. Being sorted into Gryffindor though was a rare and disgraceful thing in the Black family, but that did not affect his dream in the least. Andromeda though faced much ridicule and disgrace for it in fact and it was a continual thorn in the families' side.
A large crash echoed through the house, causing Serena Black's bellowing to escalate to an even higher degree than what it was at before. The door in the entryway opened and slammed shut a few seconds later. His father was home. The yelling stopped for a few moments as Orion and his wife talked, but then another crash occurred and the shouting started again.
Sirius glanced down at his watch. Eleven o'clock; people would start arriving in another thirty minutes or so, time to change into dress robes and go downstairs even if he was dreading it. His dress robes were deep navy blue with silver stitching and they were far from being his favorite thing to wear, but he knew that if he didn't wear them that he could kiss the Chudley Cannons Quidditch match in London next week good bye.
The yelling downstairs had finally stopped as his mother had realized the time and that she still was not ready, and now she replaced all of her shouting with shrieks of how she "had no time". The resounding chime of the doorbell echoed through the house, causing his mother to shriek even more and his father to curse loudly. Sirius took that as his cue to get the door and slid down the polished oak banister of the stairs. Leaping off before he reached the end, he landed in a heap in front of the burnished oak door. He jumped up, grimacing at the slight pain in his ankle, and opened the door to find the Malfoy family leering at him.
"Hello Sirius," Mrs. Malfoy said with a very forced smile.
Mr. Malfoy nodded in his direction and gave his son Lucius a slight poke in the back, causing him to mutter a sullen, "Hullo".
It would not be wise to be anything but polite to the Black's eldest son, the main inheritor of his families' fortune.
Sirius looked at them for a moment; disgust almost showing on his face, but quickly hid his true feelings.
"Glad you could come, Mum should be out in a minute so go ahead and make yourselves at home."
He opened the door wider, but somewhat reluctantly.
"Why thank you Sirius!" replied Lucius' mother, his father nodded again. Lucius just scowled at him.
Lucius was a year older than Sirius and was currently attending Hogwarts. He had been given special permission though, along with the rest of the children in the Black family, to leave for the weekend in order to attend the reunion.
Sirius followed them into the sitting room off the hall, making sure that Mrs. Malfoy didn't slip anything into the folds of her horrid bright pink dress robes. A house elf appeared at that moment, offering the Malfoys food and drinks, and giving Sirius the chance to slink back out of the room. He heard his mother enter a few seconds later and exchange the same overly cheerful and inviting actions that she always put on when the Malfoys were around. In reality, she hated the whole lot of them, and the feelings were mutual toward the Blacks as well, their acting was pathetic at best and most people saw straight through the whole charade. No one would ever mention the riff between the two families though; it was just something that you did not do.
The doorbell chimed again, causing his mother to excuse herself and come into the hall, exactly where Sirius was sitting.
"Why aren't you in there with the Malfoys?" she said, glaring at him.
"Dunno," he replied with a slight shrug and a smirk.
"Get in there now," she hissed at him, "or it will be the head of your dear old house elf."
Sirius shuddered involuntarily. He did not doubt that not his mother would make good on her threat. As she turned around to open the door, the overly cheery and inviting mask was already in place. The sight made him sick, and made him wonder even more how he could be related too such self-centered and hate-filled people.
Mister and Misses Malfoy were muttering together as he walked into the room but stopped abruptly upon his entrance, Mrs. Malfoy's mask sliding back on in an instant. Sirius had to use all of his self-control in order to keep from rolling his eyes and telling her to go shove it up her bum. He turned away from the sight, trying to find something in the room that he could look at without getting a sick clinching feeling in the pit of his stomach.
Sirius plopped down in the nearest black upholstered armchair, and stuck his feet up on the cherry-wood coffee table. He heard his mother's fake laugh coming from the hall, causing an even larger smirk to spread across his mouth. He chanced a quick look at Lucius; the young Malfoy couldn't control his true feelings either at this particular moment…disgust. Sirius found himself wondering who would be the next person to arrive, praying that it was Andromeda, but dreading the fact that her two sisters and parents would be there too. His Aunt Elladora hobbled in, just at the precise moment that the doorbell rang again. Well, at least his mother was busy at this moment, but Aunt Elladora was about ten times worse than his mother was. The Malfoys greeted her, much in the same way as they had greeted Sirius, but Sirius said nothing to her.
In his mind she was the most evil and corrupt person on the face of the earth. She was a murderer, a destroyer of happiness, and one of the main reasons that his mother was the way that she was. Elladora was her much, much older sister, infamous for starting the family "tradition" of beheading house elves once they could no longer work as hard as they were once able to. She had been trying to murder Sirius' ancient house elf for at least two years, and for that he could not forgive her. Yes, he had to admit that Germy was old, but she was the only creature in the entire house that had ever seemed to deeply care about him. She was almost in a way, like an adopted mother to Sirius. She had taken care of him and watched out for him, while his parents had been busy delving into the Dark Arts and doing other things that seemed to take up so much of their time, whatever they were.
More people began to arrive, some said hi, some just acknowledged him with a nod, and others tried to give him well-aimed kicks. None of these ever made contact though; even if they had it would not have really mattered to him.
By now the house was thoroughly crowded and moving a great distance was becoming somewhat of a challenge. He needed to find Andromeda, or one of her sisters if he became desperate enough to dare ask Narcissa or Bellatrix. Finally making it out of the crowded den, he spotted her. She was unusually tall for her age, and kept her unruly blonde hair cropped short to her mother's great disgust.
She winked at him.
"I was wondering when you were going to find me."
He ran into her open arms and gave her the tightest hug that he could muster.
"I missed you Ann," he said while stepping out of the hug.
"Missed you too Siri."
The reunion was broke up just then by the appearance of Lucius Malfoy.
"So I see the 'blood traitor' is finally here," Lucius scoffed.
"Shut your trap Malfoy. If there is any traitor here, it's you." Her face was full of scorn, but Malfoy only showed mild amusement.
"You'll want to stay away from her, Sirius, she's a friend of Mudbloods and she holds Dumbledore in high esteem."
Sirius glared.
"I'll hang out with who I please Malfoy, and how do you know that anyway?"
"From my own observations and things that Bellatrix has told me about," he said simply.
"So what if I am, Muggle-borns are no different than pure bloods. And as far as Dumbledore goes…he is one of the greatest men that I have ever laid eyes upon. I do not care how this family views me, or how you view me so get your pretty little head out of my face before I give into the great temptation of removing it."
Lucius' sneer stayed firmly in place, but the confidence in his gaze wavered slightly.
Andromeda drew out her wand.
"I'm serious Malfoy you lousy git…"
Sirius snickered at the shock that showed in Lucius eyes, he'd obviously forgotten that they were not allowed to use magic out side of Hogwarts. He scowled at the young Black.
"I'm leaving…don't get your panties in such a twist…"
He slouched back into the den.
"I strongly dislike that boy," muttered Andromeda at Lucius' retreating form.
"Join the club," replied Sirius.
Andromeda cracked a grin.
"So what have you been up to lately? You haven't written me in over a month! I miss trying to decipher that untidy scrawl that you call writing!"
He punched her in the arm. "Shut up."
Andromeda grinned.
"Well, well, well, if it isn't Sirius Black," said a disdainful voice from behind them.
The two turned around; it was Bellatrix.
"Yeah it is, got a problem with it?" Sirius was bristling.
Why did Bellatrix hate him so much? He knew that many people in his family disliked him for one reason or another, most were just jealous, but she had a hatred of him that stretched far beyond jealousy, but why?
He couldn't remember ever doing anything to her, heck she was four years older than him, if anything it should be the other way around.
Andromeda placed a protective arm around his shoulders, "What do you want Bella?"
"To talk to you," she said simply, "or more like our parents wanted me to talk to you."
"About…?"
"Don't play coy with me Andromeda, you know exactly what about! All the disgrace that you have caused the Black name, and you dare ask what about?!"
Sirius couldn't help but let the disgust that he felt show upon his face. Bellatrix looked at him for a moment, her cold eyes boring into his own.
"Watch yourself Sirius, or you'll end up in the exact same trouble that my dear sister is in right now."
Her voice was full of sarcasm and hopefulness. Andromeda scowled.
"Shut it Bellatrix, if our parents feel the need to reprimand me for something then they need to do it themselves, not send a girl that is only two years my senior to do it for them."
Andromeda stared unwaveringly into Bellatrix's eyes; neither looked away or blinked.
"One day, you will pay for your arrogance and lack of honor Andromeda," she hissed.
"I cannot wait for that day to arrive then, because I am never going to change my views on right and wrong."
Bellatrix stormed off, muttering under her breath about traitors and infidels.
Sirius shivered. How could Andromeda be so brave? Everyone in the Black family hated her now; everyone except him. A drop of water fell onto the tip of his nose, pulling him out of his thoughts and causing him to look up. She was crying. The teardrops were flowing freely from her dark blue eyes, but not a single sound was uttered from her lips. He hugged her again.
"It's ok Ann, I still love you and I always will."
She attempted a smile, but failed miserably, causing a choking sound to escape from her throat. Neither knew how long they stood there, but soon Sirius' mother discovered them and chided them on not joining the rest of the family, forcing them to leave the entryway and venture into the rest of the house, into the very heart of the people that wished them nothing but harm.
A/N: Well what did you think? Why don't you tell me by reviewing (looks hopeful)? Thanks again to all my faithful reviewers on my fic 'All That Any of Us Want to Remember' and the second chapter should be up soon hopefully, just need to get it back from my beta reader. Thanks again!!!!