Chapter 8: Family Matters

Sirius lugged his trunk up the stairs of No. 12 Grimmauld Place, and closed the door to his room behind him. He was about to do something his parents would never approve of. Opening his trunk, Sirius pulled out the package Lily had gotten him for Christmas. He knew his parents would hate what was inside, but he didn't care. They weren't exactly the nicest people.

Sirius opened up the wrappings, and pulled out the first of the posters: a picture of a fighter jet. A little caption at the bottom said it was called a CONVAIR F-106 Delta Dart. Even though the image didn't move around like most pictures he'd seen, there was something cool about it. Lily mentioned something about it being used in a war in some faraway country, which Sirius figured meant it must be good.

Sirius pulled out his wand, and held the poster against the door of his closet. "Manere Permanens," he said, and the poster stuck itself against the door. Anyone who tried to remove it would have a very difficult time. Sirius went back to the package and pulled out the next poster: this one was of a motorcycle. It featured the words "Easy Rider" in big letters on the bottom of it, which Lily told him was the name of a movie. Sirius found a spot on his wall to stick this one too. 'Hmm...' thought Sirius. 'Maybe I should get a motorcycle one day. They look cool.'

Sirius returned to the package and pulled out one of his favourite pictures in the bunch (and one that made him glad Lily didn't judge him too hard): she called these 'centrefolds' from a muggle magazine called Playboy. Sirius opened one of the pictures up, and smiled broadly. The women in these pictures often wore little to no clothes, and Sirius could only approve. Sirius found a spot for each of them just above his bed.

The last couple of posters weren't quite as 'fun', but that didn't mean Sirius didn't like them: explosions, race cars, the team photo of the British soccer team winning the World Cup from a few years ago. Lily assured him that this was all stuff muggle thirteen-year-olds would have in their rooms.

Once all the posters were up, Sirius went on to phase two of redecorating his room: a small shrine to Godric Gryffindor. It wasn't much, mostly consisting of a small statue Patricia got him from Hogsmeade, as well as some scarlet and gold nick-knacks he'd 'acquired'.

Sirius stood in the doorway, admiring his handiwork. His parents were definitely going to freak out when they saw what he'd done, though Sirius thought it looked pretty good. No-one would know this room belonged to a wizard unless they were aware the house could only be accessed through magic, except for maybe the shrine on his bedside table.

There were still more things he wanted, like a record player and comic books, but Lily had already spent way more money than Sirius had expected her to by buying this stuff for him. In any case, Lily had said that even cheap record players cost hundreds of pounds, and ran on electricity, something that Sirius's ancestors had seen to removing from the house.

Sirius decided that, with his room redecorated, he'd better start unpacking, when he heard a loud CRACK from next to his bed. Sirius turned to see his family's house elf Kreacher standing next to his bed, his eyes widening in shock at what was in one of his master's bedrooms.

"Master Sirius..." he started, still unable to believe what he was seeing. "What has you done?"

"Nothing you need concern yourself with Kreacher," said Sirius. "Run along."

"Master Orion and Mistress Walburga will not be pleased," said Kreacher. "Master Sirius must know how they feel about muggles."

"Well aware of that Kreacher," said Sirius, ignoring the house elf's concerns. "Now, go away, I need to unpack."

"Don't say I didn't warn you Master," said Kreacher, Apparating out of the room.

Sirius sighed, opening his trunk. His parents weren't exactly fanatical fans of the Dark Lord, but anyone who showed any kind of support for muggles was an immediate enemy to them. Sirius started throwing clothes back into his closet, when he heard his door slam open. Sirius jumped, thinking it was his father, but it was just his brother. "Hey Sirius, Kreacher just said…" Regulus cut himself off and stared at the pictures plastered around Sirius's room. "Wow…"

"Yeah, I've decided to make my room a little more colourful," said Sirius. "What do you think?"

"I think mum and dad are going to kill you," said Regulus. "Like, not just punish you a little bit. Actually kill you."

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence," muttered Sirius, finding more of his stuff put to away. "Did you want something, or…"

"Nah, just wanted to see how much trouble were going to get into," said Regulus. "Speaking of which, is that…" Before he could finish his sentence, Sirius heard the booming of footsteps outside his room, following by his father's large frame filling the doorway.

"So, this is what Kreacher was talking about," said Orion Black, glaring down at his eldest son. "Regulus, would you please leave the room?"

"Well, it was nice knowing you Sirius," said Regulus, jumping off the bed and running out of the room.

"Hey dad," said Sirius, pretending to be ignorant to what his father was here about. "What's up?"

"What's up?" snapped his father, causing Sirius to jump. "What the hell do you think is up?"

"The sky?" asked Sirius, thinking that trying to be funny was the right way to go in this situation. It wasn't.

"So, you like muggles now?" asked Orion, his voice very dangerous as he looked around the room. "Who's the mudblood who gave you these?"

Sirius gulped. "How'd you know?" he asked.

"I didn't," said Orion. "I guessed, and you just confirmed it." Sirius silently cursed himself for being so stupid. "So, what's her name?"

"How'd you…" started Sirius, then shut up again. Unfortunately, it was too late.

"Wow, you are easy to get information out of," said Orion. "Don't commit a crime kid, most interrogators are much harsher than this. Now, give me her name." This time, Sirius stayed quiet. "Oh, you're learning, are you? Well, let's see how well you hold your tongue against this." Sirius gulped again as Orion grabbed Sirius's old broomstick that was leaning against a wall…

Later this night, Sirius was still rubbing several very tender feeling areas. Orion got bored with just using the broom very quickly, and found it was more 'fun' to use his fists. But Sirius refused to talk, which frustrated his father even more. He even tried his normal tactic of guessing names, but fortunately his father didn't know many of his classmate's names.

After his beating, Sirius had just lay in his room for nearly an hour. He could hardly move with how much pain he was in, and the shock of the brutality of the assault. Eventually, he'd peeled himself off the floor and checked his books, hoping for a spell or an easy to make potion to dull the pain, or at least take away some of the bruising, but no luck.

At least Sirius had been allowed to keep the posters, if only because his father couldn't risk removing them. He didn't know any spells for undoing the permanent stick charm, and burning them could destroy the whole house (which would be interesting, seeing as how their house was supposed to be hidden).

Sirius threw himself back down on the bed and smiled, even though it hurt. He had protected a friend, despite what it had cost him. And he had no intention of telling Lily, she didn't need to know what was happening at home to him on her behalf.

Author's note: Hey guys, sorry this chapter was delayed, had some laptop issues and lost a bit of progress with the chapter. It least it wasn't too much (and I thought to back everything up a couple of days beforehand, so I didn't lose anything too important). See you guys next time.