"Sirius Black!" a woman's voice called, "Get down from here this instant before you fall and break your neck!"
Sirius giggled and climbed higher in the tree until he was leaning on a very thin branch. He gasped as it waved dangerously, but steeled his nerves and clung to the branch, sticking his tongue out at his aunt.
"That's it young man!" Victoria Tonks stormed up to the tree, her wand pointed dangerously at young Sirius. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she shouted.
The little boy suddenly found himself floating midair above the branches of the gigantic Oak tree. Sirius screamed, as his aunt released her spell, sending him plummeting quickly to the ground, only to stop his fall a moment before impact and pluck him out of the sky.
"I told you to finish your peas before you go outside to play! How will you ever grow up to be big and strong if you don't eat all your peas?" Victoria scolded.
Sirius wiggled out of her grasp and ran into the kitchen, intent on hiding his peas before his grandmother had him trapped.
He scooped his peas quickly into his napkin and rushed over to the trashcan. Just as Sirius opened the napkin to dump out the peas he felt a hand on his collar. Sirius tensed up and then turned around with a sigh as his aunt led him back to the table and watched him eat each and every pea before shooing him back outside to make mischief as far away from her furniture as possible. At that moment, Nymphadora flounced out into the kitchen cheerfully.
Today her hair was a brilliant shade of orange, and her eyes matched. "Nymphadora!" Victoria screeched at Sirius's favorite cousin. "That is simply ridiculous! Change your appearance back to normal this instant!"
Nymphadora sighed, and her hair changed back to brown slowly. The three year old made a face and pouted. Sirius stuck his tongue at Victoria playfully as she turned away, and motioned for his younger cousin to join him.
Sirius loved staying with his aunt, although she was very strict. His cousin Nymphadora was the only remaining member of his family that Sirius loved. After his sister Amanda had died, Sirius had felt very alone in his family. If it wasn't for James and Nymphadora, he never would have gotten through it. Sirius couldn't remember his sister very well, but the things he did remember of her were wonderful. She had been the one to dote on him and protect him from his mother when she went into her fits of rage. Still, his Aunt's house was a welcome retreat, although he knew he could not stay away from the Black manor for long.
His mother hated him, if it was possible, more than she had hated Amanda. Sirius was nothing like his good brother. He never listened to anything his mother said.
Before the day was over, ten year old Sirius had managed to terrify the neighbor's dog, blow up the garden hose, burn down some small shrubs along the walkway, and dye Victoria's white picket fence orange. Victoria was impressed, "Thank you Sirius for not hurting anyone," she thanked him sarcastically. "As a reward, I'll let James come over tomorrow if his mother will let him."
James Potter was Sirius's best friend. The two of them had been like brothers growing up. James lived down the street from Sirius, and from the first time they had met, they had been closer than anyone could imagine. Sirius's own brother was a different story. But James and Sirius spent every waking moment causing mischief together, not that either boy needed any help in that area.
That night, Sirius even managed to go to bed on the second try.
The next morning he awoke early, as Sirius tended to do and pestered his grandmother for six straight hours until James arrived. After that they were off. The two of them found a field nearby to explore, and were not retrieved for several hours when a neighbor called Victoria, complaining about excessive noise.
Whenever anything went wrong in Victoria's neighborhood, people would automatically call up Victoria Black. Her nephew was almost always the cause of any trouble that ever came up.
"You are so lying Sirius! You can't break a window with a rock. You have to use a baseball!" James yelled at the peak of one heated argument.
"Wanna bet four-eyes!" Sirius screamed back in anger.
The discussion was still going as Victoria escorted the two boys back to her house. "If I hear another word about breaking windows, you will both be spending the rest of the night in your room Sirius!" she finally intercepted.
At three AM Sirius and James snuck downstairs, tiptoeing past Sirius's grandmother's room and down into the kitchen. The softly opened the door and crept outside, barely shutting the door behind them. After they were safely outside, the two boys broke into Indian war cries and dashed across the street to the old field.
"Do it Sirius! I won't work I'm telling you!" James rolled his eyes beneath his glasses.
Bravely, Sirius picked up a rock, the largest he could find, and lobbed it recklessly at the attic window belonging to Mr. Webb, the young and grumpy bachelor who lived down the street from Sirius.
The rock missed its mark by about a mile.
"See Siri! You can't break a window with a rock," James smiled triumphantly.
"Oh yeah? Just watch, I'll break it and I'll break it good!" Sirius snarled before dashing up closer to the house. When he was standing in Mr. Webb's front lawn, Sirius lifted his arm and let his stone fly.
This time it hit it's target and the window shattered quite well.
But as the boys were about to find out the window was not Mr. Webb's attic window, it was in fact his bedroom window.
Sirius and James discovered just how quickly they could run when the angry man stuck his head out the window and began screaming at the boys at the top of his lungs. Several flying objects which looked suspiciously lamp-like came hurtling out of the window along with Mr. Webb's voice, barely missing Sirius's retreating head.
Needless to say, Victoria got wind of it quickly enough. James was sent home quite promptly and Sirius was shipped back to his mother, with the added torture of finding himself forced to do chores form Mr. Webb sporadically throughout the rest of the summer.
To say that Mr. Webb was strict was an understatement. To say that he was a tyrant would be closer to the truth.
Sirius dusted and vacuumed, he scrubbed and soaked, and he never could do enough to please the man. Sirius was used to doing chores the muggle way. Although his entire family were purebreds wizards and witches, Sirius could not let Mr. Webb in on the secret. Besides, his mother believed that it was good for a boy to do things the hard way. Sirius was not exactly the hardest little worker either.
Even while he tried to be good, and work off his debt, he couldn't help getting in more trouble. Once he managed to clean the attic completely, but it was only a minute later that he tripped over a box of valuable vases and broke everyone of them, also scratching up his legs with the shards of broken glass.
Sirius didn't cry like most nine year old boys were prone to. Instead he got angry and kicked the wall, and leaving quite a hole in it as well. At this point, Sirius's natural flight instinct kicked in and he ran down the stairs, getting blood from his legs all over the white carpet and right past Mr. Webb out the kitchen door.
He got all the way down the street before he was caught and force to clean up the mess.
Eventually, Mr. Webb gave up on Sirius and asked him to leave and never come back. "You are a walking disaster!" he had shouted upon their parting.
Victoria, being socially conscious witch she was, reluctantly paid for the additional damage her nephew had caused. During Sirius's house work phase, he had managed to ruin Mr. Webb's priceless Belgian carpet, tear up his lawn, break yet another window, and bleed all over his white carpet.
"Oh Sirius," Victoria would sigh, "what am I going to do with you?"
His mother on the other hand knew just what to do with him. It was her firm belief that regular whippings did a growing boy good.
Sirius giggled and climbed higher in the tree until he was leaning on a very thin branch. He gasped as it waved dangerously, but steeled his nerves and clung to the branch, sticking his tongue out at his aunt.
"That's it young man!" Victoria Tonks stormed up to the tree, her wand pointed dangerously at young Sirius. "Wingardium Leviosa!" she shouted.
The little boy suddenly found himself floating midair above the branches of the gigantic Oak tree. Sirius screamed, as his aunt released her spell, sending him plummeting quickly to the ground, only to stop his fall a moment before impact and pluck him out of the sky.
"I told you to finish your peas before you go outside to play! How will you ever grow up to be big and strong if you don't eat all your peas?" Victoria scolded.
Sirius wiggled out of her grasp and ran into the kitchen, intent on hiding his peas before his grandmother had him trapped.
He scooped his peas quickly into his napkin and rushed over to the trashcan. Just as Sirius opened the napkin to dump out the peas he felt a hand on his collar. Sirius tensed up and then turned around with a sigh as his aunt led him back to the table and watched him eat each and every pea before shooing him back outside to make mischief as far away from her furniture as possible. At that moment, Nymphadora flounced out into the kitchen cheerfully.
Today her hair was a brilliant shade of orange, and her eyes matched. "Nymphadora!" Victoria screeched at Sirius's favorite cousin. "That is simply ridiculous! Change your appearance back to normal this instant!"
Nymphadora sighed, and her hair changed back to brown slowly. The three year old made a face and pouted. Sirius stuck his tongue at Victoria playfully as she turned away, and motioned for his younger cousin to join him.
Sirius loved staying with his aunt, although she was very strict. His cousin Nymphadora was the only remaining member of his family that Sirius loved. After his sister Amanda had died, Sirius had felt very alone in his family. If it wasn't for James and Nymphadora, he never would have gotten through it. Sirius couldn't remember his sister very well, but the things he did remember of her were wonderful. She had been the one to dote on him and protect him from his mother when she went into her fits of rage. Still, his Aunt's house was a welcome retreat, although he knew he could not stay away from the Black manor for long.
His mother hated him, if it was possible, more than she had hated Amanda. Sirius was nothing like his good brother. He never listened to anything his mother said.
Before the day was over, ten year old Sirius had managed to terrify the neighbor's dog, blow up the garden hose, burn down some small shrubs along the walkway, and dye Victoria's white picket fence orange. Victoria was impressed, "Thank you Sirius for not hurting anyone," she thanked him sarcastically. "As a reward, I'll let James come over tomorrow if his mother will let him."
James Potter was Sirius's best friend. The two of them had been like brothers growing up. James lived down the street from Sirius, and from the first time they had met, they had been closer than anyone could imagine. Sirius's own brother was a different story. But James and Sirius spent every waking moment causing mischief together, not that either boy needed any help in that area.
That night, Sirius even managed to go to bed on the second try.
The next morning he awoke early, as Sirius tended to do and pestered his grandmother for six straight hours until James arrived. After that they were off. The two of them found a field nearby to explore, and were not retrieved for several hours when a neighbor called Victoria, complaining about excessive noise.
Whenever anything went wrong in Victoria's neighborhood, people would automatically call up Victoria Black. Her nephew was almost always the cause of any trouble that ever came up.
"You are so lying Sirius! You can't break a window with a rock. You have to use a baseball!" James yelled at the peak of one heated argument.
"Wanna bet four-eyes!" Sirius screamed back in anger.
The discussion was still going as Victoria escorted the two boys back to her house. "If I hear another word about breaking windows, you will both be spending the rest of the night in your room Sirius!" she finally intercepted.
At three AM Sirius and James snuck downstairs, tiptoeing past Sirius's grandmother's room and down into the kitchen. The softly opened the door and crept outside, barely shutting the door behind them. After they were safely outside, the two boys broke into Indian war cries and dashed across the street to the old field.
"Do it Sirius! I won't work I'm telling you!" James rolled his eyes beneath his glasses.
Bravely, Sirius picked up a rock, the largest he could find, and lobbed it recklessly at the attic window belonging to Mr. Webb, the young and grumpy bachelor who lived down the street from Sirius.
The rock missed its mark by about a mile.
"See Siri! You can't break a window with a rock," James smiled triumphantly.
"Oh yeah? Just watch, I'll break it and I'll break it good!" Sirius snarled before dashing up closer to the house. When he was standing in Mr. Webb's front lawn, Sirius lifted his arm and let his stone fly.
This time it hit it's target and the window shattered quite well.
But as the boys were about to find out the window was not Mr. Webb's attic window, it was in fact his bedroom window.
Sirius and James discovered just how quickly they could run when the angry man stuck his head out the window and began screaming at the boys at the top of his lungs. Several flying objects which looked suspiciously lamp-like came hurtling out of the window along with Mr. Webb's voice, barely missing Sirius's retreating head.
Needless to say, Victoria got wind of it quickly enough. James was sent home quite promptly and Sirius was shipped back to his mother, with the added torture of finding himself forced to do chores form Mr. Webb sporadically throughout the rest of the summer.
To say that Mr. Webb was strict was an understatement. To say that he was a tyrant would be closer to the truth.
Sirius dusted and vacuumed, he scrubbed and soaked, and he never could do enough to please the man. Sirius was used to doing chores the muggle way. Although his entire family were purebreds wizards and witches, Sirius could not let Mr. Webb in on the secret. Besides, his mother believed that it was good for a boy to do things the hard way. Sirius was not exactly the hardest little worker either.
Even while he tried to be good, and work off his debt, he couldn't help getting in more trouble. Once he managed to clean the attic completely, but it was only a minute later that he tripped over a box of valuable vases and broke everyone of them, also scratching up his legs with the shards of broken glass.
Sirius didn't cry like most nine year old boys were prone to. Instead he got angry and kicked the wall, and leaving quite a hole in it as well. At this point, Sirius's natural flight instinct kicked in and he ran down the stairs, getting blood from his legs all over the white carpet and right past Mr. Webb out the kitchen door.
He got all the way down the street before he was caught and force to clean up the mess.
Eventually, Mr. Webb gave up on Sirius and asked him to leave and never come back. "You are a walking disaster!" he had shouted upon their parting.
Victoria, being socially conscious witch she was, reluctantly paid for the additional damage her nephew had caused. During Sirius's house work phase, he had managed to ruin Mr. Webb's priceless Belgian carpet, tear up his lawn, break yet another window, and bleed all over his white carpet.
"Oh Sirius," Victoria would sigh, "what am I going to do with you?"
His mother on the other hand knew just what to do with him. It was her firm belief that regular whippings did a growing boy good.