Legal Disclaimer: I own my stuff, but not the original source material. That belongs to whoever. Also, the opinions and interpretations I use here may not reflect the same in said whoever that owns the source material. Look, I'm just a poor college librarian. Suing me isn't going to get you anything but tears.
Warning: This work may be offensive to some readers. Additionally, there are references to canon child abuse but this time with an ableistic twist! Feel free to back out if need be.
Author's Note: Head's up, y'all: my genderbent Sirius is hard of hearing. She has problems hearing a particular set of sounds. Since she's my narrator, you get to miss what she does. That's why there seems to be a lot of em dashes stuck randomly in the dialogue. As a final note, Zeta is another star in Canis Major and Rhea Silvia is the priestess who gave birth to Romulus & Remus after a tryst with Mars (god of war). You know, in case you were wondering where I pulled those names from for my fem version of Sirius & Remus.
Submitting Info:
Stacked with: Hogwarts (Term 12); MC4A
Individual Challenges: Aya Bribes You (Y); Shadow HP Bribery (Y); Gryffindor MC (x3) (Y); Magical MC (x3); Rian-Russo Inversion (x3) (Y); Ethnic & Present (x2); Disabled; The 3rd Rule; Lovely Triangle; Setting Sail; Hold the Mayo (x2); Gender Bender (x2); Lunar Era; Old Shoes (Y); In a Flash; Bucket Listing (Y); Two Cakes (Y); Eating Cake (Y); Green Ribbon
House: Slytherin
Assignment No.: Term 12 – Assignment 8
Subject (Task No.): Herbology (Task#2: Write about someone suffering stress.)
Other Hogwarts Challenges: Insane Prompt Challenge [04](Marble); 365 [37](Broken); Pinata [Hard] (Femslash); Herbology [Settings](School); Cat Collecting [17](Write about someone with a physical difference or disability from others.); Foolish Fish Tanks [D17] (Soulmate AU)[Marauders]; Days of the Year [May 6th](Someone acting impulsively); Spring Theme [28]("You can cut all the flowers, but you cannot stop spring from coming." - Pablo Nureba); Hufflepuff Challenge [T15](Dutiful)
Other MC4A Challenges: Sp Bingo [1C](Blossom/Flower); Tr Bingo [2C](Masquerade); Ship [Sp Micro 1](Soul Marks AU); Hunt [Sp Writing Diversity](Deaf/HoH Character); Chim [Doug](Family/Friendship)
Representation(s): Remus Lupin/Sirius Black/Lily Evans (pre-ship); Fem Remus Lupin & Sirius Black; Hard of Hearing Sirius Black
Primary & Secondary Bonus Challenges: Found Family; Nontraditional; Zucchini Bread; Peddling Pots; Second Verse (Bechdel Test; Ladylike; Not a Lamp; Persistence Still; White Dress); Chorus (Wabi Sabi)
Tertiary & Generic Bonus Challenges: T3 (Terse; Toad); SN (Rail; Spare)
Word Count: 979
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Suffer in Silence
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Zeta Black came into the world during the night when the Veil was thinnest. From that very first moment, she had been the loudest person in the room. Of course, she never seemed to notice when she was speaking louder than what others would consider appropriate. To Zeta, she was merely talking loud enough to be heard.
Likewise, Zeta was always surprised when others told her that she was interrupting conversations. That part thoroughly annoyed her mother. The old witch was fast with her wand when she wanted to be, and something about Zeta made her really want to be.
Zeta comforted herself with how she never pointed her wand at Regulus.
She could handle a bit of pain. She would handle a lot more to protect her little brother.
Then Zeta had gone to Hogwarts.
The Sorting Hat had barely given her a chance to beg before it had declared her a Gryffindor. Her heart had pounded so hard within her chest that she had been sure that it was going to burst out and go screaming down the front lawn. Her cousin Bellatrix had looked like she would have gladly helped. Her other cousin Andromeda had looked like she had been carved from marble. She just knew that she would be disowned before breakfast.
She had known that she was doomed. She had known that the entire room had to be whispering about how much of a failure she was, even if she couldn't really hear it. What Black failed to get into even Ravenclaw? She must really be just as stupid as her mother had always screamed.
A girl slumped into the spot next to her, clearly trying to look invisible. The red-haired girl who had sat down across from Zeta grinned at the new girl. She made several elaborate gestures towards the other girl. Every motion had an excited sharpness to it. Zeta's confusion only mounted when the girl started returning the gestures.
The girl noticed Zeta watching and said something. Zeta felt like the slimiest flobberworm when she couldn't make out what it was over the muffled din that filled the Great Hall. Her smile faded as she took too long to cover up her blunder. Instead of getting angry like her mother always did, the girl's dark hands moved again, like they had during her exchange with the girl beside Zeta.
Something light and fizzy filled her stomach, making her feel like she was about to float away forever.
A touch to her arm tethered her to the present.
"Can—hear me?" the girl asked, very carefully. Zeta gave her the lopsided grin that annoyed his mother the most. The girl returned the smile, even if the expression pulled at the trio of scars across her cheek in a way that must be uncomfortable. When she continued, her dark tan hands also moved but slow enough that Zeta could tell that the gestures must have some actual meaning. "My name is Rhea Lupin. That is Lily Evans. Do—any sign?"
"Only the ones of death," Zeta declared. She nearly flinched when several other Gryffindor twisted to look at them. She must have spoken too loudly again. Still, she was a Black (at least for now) and it shouldn't matter what peons thought. "Zeta Black—do you know any gods of war? Is that where you got your scars?"
"That's—yes, Lily, but she doesn't seem—" Rhea held up a hand, probably meaning for Zeta to wait. Acting on an instinct that she didn't fully understand, Zeta pressed her own hand against it.
Their palms heated where they touched. Rhea's warm brown eyes heated to molten gold as they widened in shock. The heat spread as ribbons of colored light twisted around both their wrists and up their forearms. When the light faded, Rhea had a ribbon of royal purple tattooed into the tan skin while Zeta had one of stormy gray edged with the same gold that Rhea's eyes had turned.
"But I don't understand," Rhea said. She raised her other arm. The motion made the oversized sleeve fall back, revealing an emerald ribbon wrapped around that forearm. "Why would I have t— marks?"
"I bet I —" Lily declared. The redhead reached across the table to grab Zeta's other wrist. The moment their skin touched, the magic surged again. When the light faded again, Zeta had an emerald ribbon that matched the one on Rhea's arm. The royal purple now wrapping around Lily's arm was barely visible against her dark skin. "See? We're all matched!"
Zeta felt something quiver inside of her at the thought. It wasn't exactly rare to find one's soul match. Plenty of people actually managed it. Yet she had been dragged through so many matching parties, and so many times she had been left by the sidelines. She was the broken Black, the flawed one. Her mother had lectured for years about how Zeta was so useless that she couldn't even be married off properly.
Yet she had two matches, and she had found them both by accident.
Lily squeezed Zeta's hand before letting go to sit up. Carefully, Rhea laced her fingers through Zeta's. In turn, Zeta tightened her grip in hopes to reassure the scarred girl. She no longer cared about her mother possibly throwing her out for being sorted wrong. Maybe her grandparents would be willing to take her in, if her mother did so. (Grandmother Melania had always disliked how Zeta's mother acted as if she was already the matriarch of the House of Black. Now that she wasn't stressing about everything and on the verge of a panic attack, Zeta thought that Grandmother might do it just to snub Walburga.)
Suddenly, the Hat sending her to Gryffindor changed from just another source of stress in her life to the best thing to possibly ever happen to her.