Author Note: And let the angst commence! (I'm sorry but also not really :) )

Also finally finished high school which is a very strange feeling that I'm still coming to terms with but hey the free time is a blessing!

Hope everyone is having a lovely day/night xx

The house was quiet when Ebony stepped through the floo. Too quiet.

Maxwell appeared almost instantly and whisked her trunk away upstairs with him with a loud pop, leaving her standing alone in the middle of the living room. She strained her ears to try to find a source of life in the house, hoping that by some miracle it was empty.

Unfortunately, she heard faint laughter from somewhere.

Ebony followed the source of the sound to the dining room, where the door was open ajar. She crept up to it, wanting to know the situation before she made any efforts to announce her arrival.

Peeping through the small gap in the door she could make out four people sat around the table, chatting and laughing. There were two men sat facing each other, one Ebony didn't recognise and the other had his back to her. Then, at the head of the table, sat her Uncle Rabastan with her mother sat on his lap, arm around his neck, the tip of her wand lightly tracing his chin.

She was beginning to feel glad she had not made herself known.

Ebony turned to slip away upstairs and came face to face, or rather face to chest with a tall bearded man. He was a whole head taller than her and was staring sharply at her down his nose.

"Well, well, well," he said, a sick grin on his lips. "What do we have here?"

Ebony took a few steps back to try to put some distance between herself and the creepy beard man but as she did so she backed into the door which swung open and sent her tumbling backwards onto her bum.

The chatter and laughter died instantly as she fell into the room. She turned to look at the group who were staring, offering her mother a forced smile.

Bellatrix's face showed nothing but disdain. Ebony shouldn't have been surprised.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, curling her lip as she spoke.

"I live here."

Rabastan and one of the other men laughed but Bellatrix whacked him in the face with the back of her hand as she got up.

"Enough of your cheek young lady," she said, glaring as she strode over to where Ebony was still sitting on the floor. Bellatrix lifted her chin with the tip of her wand. "I think you're forgetting where you are."

Ebony lowered her gaze. "Sorry ma'am," she mumbled.

"Got that one trained well," said the bearded man as he made his way past her to sit at the table with the other two men. The second one had turned to watch the scene unfold and Ebony had definitely seen him before but she didn't know his name.

"Hardly," her mother scoffed, dropping Ebony's chin. "takes after her father, unfortunately."

"Really?" Rabastan said, standing behind Bellatrix, his arms snaking around her waist and to Ebony's surprise - she let him. "Always thought you were the wild one," he added softly into her ear.

Ebony suddenly felt rather queasy and wanted the floor to swallow her whole. She wished she'd just gone upstairs as soon as she got home. She clambered to her feet and was edging to the door when a voice filled the large room.

"What in Merlin's name is happening here?" Ebony turned to see her father striding into the room still wearing his travelling cloak, clearly having only got home.

It seemed the day could get worse.

"Oh you're back," her mother spat, her face full of the similar disdain shed worn when Ebony had arrived. She wrenched herself out of Rabastan's embrace, if rather reluctantly.

"Long time no see Rudy," Rabastan said, with a wide smile that shouldn't have been worn by a man who until moments ago had been holding his brother's wife just a little too closely.

"Rab," Rodolphus replied, "we talked about this." Her father didn't sound angry, Ebony knew what that sounded like but this wasn't it. He just seemed tired, perhaps a little pissed off.

"Oh come on brother," Rabastan said, "Can't a man come see his favourite niece?" He clapped a hand on Ebony's shoulder and it took all of her willpower not to instantly wriggly out of his grasp. Her uncle gave her the creeps at the best of times and his behaviour towards her mother had significantly increased that opinion.

"She's not who you're here to see."

"Oh get over it," Bellatrix snapped again, "We just got bored waiting for you so that we can have this meeting."

Ebony didn't like the sound of that.

Her father just grunted in response and took no notice of his brother as he walked past him towards the table. He grabbed Bellatrix by the arm and whispered something to her before taking a seat at the head of the dining room table and instantly fell into conversation with the other three men seated there.

She wasn't sure what her father had said but it appeared to do nothing to soothe the anger in her mother's eyes.

Ebony, who moments ago was plotting her escape from the situation, was now overly curious as to what this 'meeting' was about but her mother glared at her and cocked her head towards the door and Ebony quickly left the room.

...

"The Weasleys will be coming in a week," Remus said.

Sirius snorted and took another sip of his fire whiskey, "Molly's going to throw a fit at the state of this place."

Though Grimmauld Place had been through ten years of only crusty Kreacher living in it, Sirius never thought that the house was particularly habitable even in its prime.

It was still very much the same, dark and lacking in life, sharp and cursed objects in every corner. The only difference in the house seemed to be the thick layer of dust on everything. It still sometimes felt like it was suffocating him, winding long dark fingers around his throat and slowly squeezing every last puff of air that he had.

Sirius was laying in an armchair, legs swung over the side, glass dangling precariously from his fingers. Remus was sitting in the one next to him with his legs crossed, doing the pose that long ago would've gotten him teased for being an old man.

The joke didn't have the same effect when he actually had the grey hair to go with it.

"Stop looking at it," Remus said gently, causing him to snap out of whatever daze he had found himself in.

Sirius hadn't even realised that yet again his gaze had wandered over to the tapestry on the opposite wall, eyes fixed on the black burn mark just below 'Orion'.

"Still struggle to believe she actually did it," he replied.

He knew that she would burn his face from it the moment he left the house that night. He wouldn't have been surprised if she'd done it the moment his foot had hit the cobbles.

But he'd never actually seen it and there was a tiny part of him that thought maybe she wouldn't have gone that far.

Why he ever had any doubts about the extent of Walburga Black's rage was beyond him.

"She was a fucking bitch," Remus said from behind his glass.

"Remus John Lupin! Watch your language," Sirius replied, a fake look of shock on his face.

"Piss off Black." Remus smirked, a look that Sirius didn't think he'd missed till he saw it again for the first time in years.

The two of them laughed softly before the room once again fell into an uneasy silence, the subject they were both avoiding yet again bubbling to the surface.

They'd both tried. They'd tried so hard.

Time hadn't healed their wounds, it had let them fester.

The bliss they had felt in reuniting seemed as though it would last forever, Moony and Padfoot back where they belonged. Nothing lasts forever though and soon they were both forced to face the truth - that there was no going back to how they were. The two hopelessly romantic teenagers were gone and in their place sat two tired and aged men, both with too many ghosts to even count and too many mistakes to forgive.

Sirius found it less painful to just ignore it.

"I told Ebony about this place," Sirius said finally, breaking the silence. "Got Minnie to show her." If Remus was surprised by this, he didn't show it.

"You really think she'll leave them?"

"If she knows what's good for her." Sirius took another drink, briefly closing his eyes and relishing in the burn of the liquid as it slipped down his throat. "I wanted to bring her straight here from Hogwarts but-"

"Dumbledore said no?" Remus finished, arching an eyebrow quizzically as he spoke.

"Yes, said it was 'too much of a risk'." He spat the last few words.

"For who?"

"The order. But the risk to Ebony's life? Nah that's fine," Sirius scoffed.

"What a prick," Remus said, draining the last of the copper liquid in his glass. Sirius always liked Remus better when they weren't around the rest of the order. In the company of the other adults, he was quiet, well-spoken and polite, and just plain boring. He came across as more of Sirius' babysitter than his best friend, a role which most of the other order members seemed to think he needed when what he really needed was to leave the fucking house.

But when it was just the two of them, and occasionally Tonks, he would laugh and swear and drink and reminisce. And for those evenings everything felt right again. Almost everything felt good.

"I really hope she does," Remus said quietly. "No child deserves to be around them."

"If she doesn't come here by the end of the summer we are going to get her."

"It's got to be her decision though Pads."

"Fuck that," Sirius cried, slamming his now empty glass down on the coffee table. " I'll drag her here kicking and screaming if I have to."

"Well, let's hope it doesn't come to that," Remus said, placing his glass down far more gently.

And for the second time that evening, a heavy silence fell over the pair of them.

"What's she like Moons?" Sirius asked softly.

"Ebony?" Remus said, unable to hide the slight surprise in his voice.

Sirius nodded. "I've only ever met her a couple of times, you taught her for a year. Probably know her a lot better than I do."

"Well-" Remus sat forward in his chair- "she's fairly bright but lacks confidence in herself."

"Yeah, I wonder why that is."

"Surprisingly quiet and quite shy considering who her mother is. Didn't say much in class all year. Probably my fault though for giving her a bad first lesson."

"Don't blame yourself, you said it - she's just quiet."

"You'd think I'd have learned after..." Remus trailed off.

"The same thing happened to me?" Sirius finished.

"Yes," he agreed quietly.

Sirius would never forget that lesson, Walburga and Orion towering over him in the middle of the classroom as he desperately tried to keep his cool in front of his classmates while they filled the air with their poison.

He didn't quite manage it.

"Her and Neville?" Sirius asked, eager to pull Remus out of the self-deprecating spiral he was about to send himself into and brush the unpleasant memory from his head. "Funny pair. Not met him since he was a baby, but they get along extremely well from the sounds of it." That was of course an understatement, Sirius vividly remembered Ebony coming to see him to explain that their friendship had perhaps gone a lot further than she intended.

He wondered what happened with all of that.

A small smile appeared on Remus' tired face.

"Inseparable," he said, "a little strange considering the circumstances but they just fit together."

"Do you think he knows it was them? That they were the ones who got Frank and Alice?" Sirius couldn't decide if he thought it was better that Neville did or didn't know. Then he had a terrible thought. "Fuck, do you think Ebony knows?"

He hoped to god that she did because he knew enough things were pulling her away from Neville and what her parents did to his would definitely be the last straw. If she found out now she would never forgive herself.

"When did the Lestranges ever miss a chance to boast about the things they did?" Remus replied and Sirius felt a little bit of relief. "As for Neville, I'm sure that Augusta made sure he knows. Which is why I hope that Ebony never has the misfortune of meeting her."

Sirius almost shuddered. "I am forever thankful that I have never faced that woman's wrath."

"Even Frank was scared of her a bit when she was angry," Remus said fondly, his eyes unfocusing for a moment, lost in thought.

"Alice never was."

"That's because she was stupidly brave." Remus wore a sad smile as he spoke.

Alice and Frank, the reckless quidditch player and the herbology genius. Two people with some of the widest smiles and the kindest hearts.

Sirius pressed the heel of his hand to his eye.

Fuck he missed them. He missed them all.

"I saw them once, at St Mungo's," Remus said softly, his voice barely above a whisper. Sirius turned to him in surprise. Remus gently shook his head. "I only had enough strength to go the once...it hurt too much."

They looked away from each other and Sirius felt a pang in his chest as old memories surfaced and cut into him, ripping his heart into two.

He really wished it would stop doing that.

...

The men downstairs didn't leave until hours later when the sun had set behind the trees outside the window and Ebony may have forgotten that they were there at all if the house had not exploded with sound the second the front door closed.

She stuck her head out of the bedroom door.

"What on earth do you think you're playing at?" her father yelled.

"Oh don't fucking talk to me like I'm an insolent child!"

Ebony crawled along the landing and crouched down, peering through the bannister.

They were both at the bottom of the stairs, wands out, voices raised, standing dangerously close to each other. She could feel the tension from the floor above.

"I told you I don't want you near him."

"Oh fuck off, just because someone is able to show an interest in me." Bellatrix shoved her husband hard in the chest.

"The fuck does that even mean?"

"Maybe I'm a woman who needs to be satisfied once in a while and you can't stand to touch your own damn wife!"

Ebony felt as though she was intruding a little.

"Don't act like this is all my fault, you have nothing but hate for me too!" Rodolphus roared, his face red. "Neither of us wanted this so don't try and take the high ground here!" Ebony watched him fiddle with the wedding band on his finger. "Besides, we put that hate aside once and look what happened!" He yelled, gesturing up to Ebony's bedroom door. "I'm sure the Dark Lord will be very impressed with that pathetic waste of space you produced!"

Her grip tightened on the bannister as her eyes burned with tears.

A lump rose in her throat.

Ebony began to realise that she very much didn't want to hear this conversation

"Who are you to speak of the Dark Lord's opinions!" She screamed, "and do not blame me when you have always been too soft on her!"

More curses flew, the air cracking and swirling. The house was filled with a myriad of coloured flashes. Ebony couldn't tell what spells were being cast but she could figure that they were ones not taught at Hogwarts.

There was a bright flash of purple and her father fell to his knees, clutching his right arm.

"You are a vile woman!" he cried and Ebony saw blood begin to seep through his shirt.

"Oh I can show you a lot more than vile!" her mother snarled, a wicked grin spreading on her lips, pure fury in her eyes.

She hadn't even seen her mother raise her wand before the top of the railing was blasted off and Ebony's arms flew to her face to protect her eyes as she ducked. The near-miss went unnoticed by her parents below, her father was lying on the floor and her mother was laughing. Ebony crawled back across the landing and into her room where she shut the door and leant against it, breathing heavily as her heart thumped.

She may not have been able to see the fight anymore but she could hear it and she could almost feel it, the house was vibrating with anger. Ebony crawled into the corner by the window, wrapping the heavy velvet curtain around herself in an effort to feel safe.

Every time, she convinced herself that things would be better, convinced herself that maybe it was never truly as bad as she remembered.

But it was rather the opposite.

It was always just a little worse.

...pathetic waste of space you produced!

She knew her parents didn't think that highly of her, it was fairly obvious and she would be a fool to convince herself otherwise but to hear it said so bluntly caused something inside of her to crack. It wasn't used trying to directly insult her, they weren't trying to belittle her or make her feel bad, no, he said it as a statement of fact, completely unaware that it would reach her ears.

That was what they thought of her.

That's all she was to them.

And it just really hurt.

Ebony closed her eyes, jumping as there was a loud shatter from downstairs. She pressed her hand to her mouth, smothering a sob before it had time to leave her lips even though there was no chance that her parents would hear her over their fight. She allowed a single tear to trickle down her cheek. She used her other hand to press her necklace and felt a rush of relief when it buzzed softly in her fingers.

Ebony didn't have the guts to leave, didn't have the guts to admit that she was too scared, too ashamed.

But she still had him.

And as long as she did it would all be alright.

...