Sirius Black had never been one for wine. Those who knew him well knew that well. Some thought that it was an affectation, projecting machismo or some sort of rejection of the posh, upper-crust atmosphere he'd grown up in. Everyone knew that the Purebloods had their children drinking wine from a young age. (Perhaps too young an age, depending on who you were asking. Muggles had some interesting research on the impact of alcohol on developing young minds that Sirius thought might explain some things about his family.)
Of course, Molly hadn't meant anything by it when she offered him a glass. There was no reason for her to have known he didn't drink wine. Despite having moved into his family's home - his home, now - she didn't know him very well, not even well enough to make the easy assumptions his friends did. She probably thought the only reason he didn't have a regular glass of red with Moony was his general malaise. Depressed people were supposed to drink Ogden's, he imagined.
He'd taken the glass when she offered it, though, and Moony had eyed him from across the table. For quite some time, the glass sat untouched, and Remus sat silent. The kids were upstairs finding their gifts for one another to give to Molly so that she could hide them somewhere (under the tree, in the morning, although he didn't know where they'd be until then).
Looking down, he found himself drifting back to the last time he'd made friends with a glass of elven red. Hell, it might've been the same brand. It was a different stuffy Black manor, but they all felt the same.
The hall where everyone was gathered was decked with flowers: wreaths, elaborate arrangements, vines hanging down like tapestries. It was the friendliest he had ever seen his aunt and uncle's home look. A table was covered in homemade (likely elf-made) baked goods, which were only barely touched. The bottles of wine, he'd noticed, were rapidly refilling themselves (having been rapidly emptied - his family certainly could drink, he'd come by it honestly). Elf magic, he'd guessed, scrunching his nose.
"You get one glass," his father had said sternly when they'd arrived. He was probably the only member of Sirius's family who didn't have at least a mild alcohol dependency. Sirius's mother was a completely different story. "One! From the children's bottle! You're too young for the adult sort." Sirius had dutifully poured, under his father's watchful eye, from the specified bottle into a small crystal goblet. Father had quickly left him behind to go and mingle, which suited Sirius fine.
He was in the middle of noting the difference in color between glasses - the children's wine must have been watered down - when the event truly began.
"Look how beautiful!" The whispers had come from around the room, and all eyes were on the young woman entering the hall. Sirius was nine years old, and his favorite cousin Andromeda was seventeen. Hardly more than a girl. This was ostensibly her graduation party, although he had heard that one of the Lestrange brothers was supposed to propose. It was a convenient time with both of their families already in one place. Within the rigid social structure of Pureblood society, it was important to do things like proposals correctly.
She drifted serenely into the room, looking as if she was floating. She wore a long white dress, its long fluffy skirt shuffling around her legs as she walked. She looked… pure, he remembered thinking. Her soft brown curls were pulled up on top of her head, and a string of pearls adorned her neck. She looked like royalty, or like what you might see when you entered heaven. An angel.
She was an angel, wasn't she? He remembered how calm Andromeda had stayed that night, more than anything.
Narcissa, only a year younger than her sister, came to her from the crowd and took her hands. They exchanged quiet words, both on the verge of tears. She must be so proud of her, Sirius remembered thinking, watching them.
The two sisters were like perfect, beautiful foils of each other: Narcissa, with her icy blonde hair, the only hair like that in the family, was in a jet black gown, contrasting elegantly against her sister's stark white. Dark lace decorated the pale skin of her chest and arms with even more trailing down her dress; even the fan she carried had a black lace motif. Her jewelry, too, was black: jet set into gold, maybe. She looked beautiful, perhaps even more so than Andromeda. Narcissa had always been show-stoppingly gorgeous.
Side by side, they were unearthly to behold. Black and white, yin and yang Sirius thought now.
Sirius waited impatiently while the sisters made their rounds. He was glad to see that cousin Bellatrix wasn't there; she was… scary. He remembered when he was little and she had taught him to care for a bird he'd found outside. He remembered a week after that, when she had taught him when something was a lost cause and how to snap a bird's neck. As terrifying as that had been, she'd only gotten more menacing as she got older. He'd heard whispers around the family that she was involved with some group that did a lot of dark magic. He could believe it.
He must have been quite lost in thought, for quicker than he'd expected, his cousins were standing expectantly in front of him. He gave a small, belated bow, and Narcissa snorted.
"Very ladylike," Andromeda said, fondly teasing her sister as she often did back then.
Narcissa ignored the barb and apparently chose to redirect her irritation towards Sirius. As usual. "Your hair looks surprisingly neat today." She was always very good at back-handed compliments. Bitchiness, Sirius thought now, must be something they taught at those stupid tea parties his mother was always holding.
"You look beautiful," he replied politely. "Your hair is so beautiful - are you sure you're actually your father's daughter?"
"You little shit," Narcissa said, leaning forward and practically growling, exactly the response Sirius had been hoping for. It was a common enough conspiracy both in and out of the family. How else would she have such gently wavy blonde hair, when her mother's hair was like Andromeda's and her father's as dark as the rest of the family, both wild curly manes?
(Allegedly, Uncle Cygnus had done a blood spell and found that Narcissa was, in fact, his daughter. Narcissa was clearly his favorite daughter, and Aunt Druella was alive, so Sirius reckoned it might be true.)
Sirius started to reply, but Andromeda interrupted. "Can you two just get along?" She suddenly looked very tired. "Please?"
Sirius ducked his head. "Sorry, 'Dromeda."
"I've got to go mingle," she said, visibly trying to perk herself up. "Cissa, can you stay with him? Make sure he doesn't get into trouble," she warned.
Narcissa looked very serious as she replied, "I will."
Andromeda leaned down and kissed Sirius's cheek. When she stood back up straight, she turned sharply to Narcissa and let out a half-sob. Girls are so emotional, Sirius remembered thinking. The girls embraced tightly, and when Andromeda finally pulled away from her sister, her eyes were rimmed red, like she might be on the close to crying again.
Narcissa took her sister's hand and squeezed, then let it go just as quickly.
Andromeda took a deep breath before turning back to the party. Her huge skirt swished around her legs. For a few seconds, Narcissa just stared after her. Sirius shifted uncomfortably, which seemed to bring Narcissa back to herself.
"Right. I'm not to let you get in trouble," she said sternly. "Not ever. So you're going to have to stay by my side until you graduate Hogwarts."
Sirius grinned. "Does that include going to the loo?"
Narcissa pinched her face and bopped him on top of the head with her fan. "You really are a little shit." He loved hearing his posh cousins swear. It made them sound like people!
A little ways down the hall, he saw Andromeda approach her parents and walk them back towards him and Narcissa. Her expression was flat as she spoke. They were far enough away that he couldn't hear the conversation, but from her parents' faces, she wasn't saying anything they liked.
Sirius tried to move towards his other cousin to eavesdrop, but Narcissa clawed into his shoulder. "Don't," she hissed. "That's getting in trouble."
As that conversation grew more animated, the guests nearest them quieted. Then, the guests near those guests, and soon the entire hall was listening to the increasingly heated conversation.
"When will you learn?" Aunt Druella demanded in a harried near-whisper. It was a testament to the guests' interest that Sirius could hear her at that volume. Andromeda stood tall against her mother's quiet frustration, that same blank expression carefully draped over her face. "You cannot just-"
"And yet I can, Mother," said Andromeda, coldly cutting her mother off.
"What about your responsibilities - your station do you not understand?" The question came from Uncle Cygnus, one of his two living uncles and possibly Sirius's least favorite relative besides Bellatrix. He was even worse than Sirius's own mother.
"Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." From his spot at Narcissa's side, Sirius felt his jaw drop. She was mad! His expression of surprise was mirrored on the guests around him.
"You don't care about your own family?" Aunt Druella asked, and it sounded like her heart was breaking. Sirius wondered how much of it was acting.
"I do care about you," Andromeda said, the mask finally cracking a little as she grasped her mother's hands. "I just don't give a damn about my station." She practically spat out the word.
"Your station is a part of your being in this family. You have responsibilities, whether you like it or not," Uncle Cygnus said roughly.
"I care very much about this family," Andromeda said. She steeled herself, then said quickly and in one breath: "I'm going to marry Ted Tonks. He's a Muggle-born."
Gasps from the crowd, from Andromeda's parents - later in life, Sirius had realized that Narcissa didn't seem very surprised by any of this.
"You are very important to me," Andromeda soldiered on, "and so is your approval. Ted is also very important to me. We've been seeing each other for three years, and I want to marry him. Please don't make me choose."
"You must," Aunt Druella said, her voice cracking.
While Druella seemed hesitant to force her daughter to choose, her father had no such concern. "No daughter of mine is going to marry a Mudblood." He emphasized the word as if reminding her of its necessity.
Even from this far away, Sirius could see that Andromeda was beginning to cry. "These are modern times," she said. Although her body shook slightly, her voice did not. "I will marry him."
"Then you will be no daughter of mine," Cygnus said harshly. "Call this farce of an engagement off, or you will never step foot into a Black household again." He was shaking too, but Sirius didn't think it was with regret. It was with rage he didn't even bother to veil. "We'll blast you off the family like Cedrella and you'll never be welcome in polite company again. You can say goodbye to all of this," he said, gesturing to the watching crowd.
"I'll stop you," called Uncle Alphard. The crowd parted for the head of the family to walk forward. Despite his old age, he was steady, like a rock. Sirius hoped he was right. Alphard was only the head of the family because he was a man; Sirius's mother was the oldest of her siblings.
"You'll do your best," Mother said with a glare. As a child, Sirius didn't think it was fair that his family wouldn't allow for a girl to be head of the family. As an adult, he wished his mother had never been able to change the rule after Uncle Alphard's death.
"Druella," Cygnus said sharply, cutting off the inevitable argument of powers.
"Yes?" Druella answered, although she didn't look away from Andromeda.
Uncle Cygnus smirked. Sirius shivered. "Gain her compliance."
Aunt Druella bowed her head to her husband. "What would you have me do?"
"Oh, I give up with you," he snarked. He pushed his way past her and raised his wand to his middle daughter. Her eyes widened in fear. "Crucio!" he cried, and then Andromeda was holding back shrieks and Aunt Druella was whimpering and Narcissa's nails were digging painfully into Sirius's shoulders.
It was the first time he'd ever seen the spell used, and Sirius hated it. When Andromeda fell to the floor, clutching at her body, it was the most terrifying punishment he'd ever seen. He would discover later that the spell hadn't even worked fully. Despite his anger, Cygnus hadn't been able to work up the pure, unadulterated rage necessary to fuel the Cruciatus. Bellatrix had demonstrated its full force many times during the first war.
Cygnus lifted the spell after a short moment, although to Andromeda it must have felt endless. "Do you agree?"
The girl stood back on her feet, her shaking becoming spasms. "Go to hell," she spat, and again the crowd gasped as one in disbelief. "I don't know why I even tried. I'll leave the bloody house of Black."
"I - you-" Cygnus sputtered. Druella was now openly crying. "You would turn against us for a Mudblood?"
Andromeda's curls hung damp against her face - whether from the heat of anger or the sweat of her torment Sirius didn't know - framing the fury in her eyes. "I would, and I am. I'm leaving now." Her words were final. Moving slower than Sirius had ever seen someone so young move, she hobbled to the door to the manor. Sirius half-expected Cygnus to throw another curse at her, but instead he just watched as she fumbled the door open and left without looking back.
The second after the crack of her Apparition, the room filled with hushed conversation. Sirius heard only snippets: "Poor Druella!" "Can you imagine?" "Good riddance." "We'd best be going."
Guests began to leave through the Floo, with no one brave enough to approach the same door that Andromeda had left through. The door that Druella was still looking to as though expecting Andromeda to return.
Sirius wanted desperately to leave, but Narcissa was still gripping him by the shoulder like he was her lifeline. They stood there for a while, Sirius looking down at his shoes while she stared at the door like her mother.
"Why are you still here?" Uncle Cygnus suddenly barked at the pair.
He looked around wildly for his parents, not seeing them or Regulus. They must've left quickly, each of his parents thinking the other had him. But why hadn't they come back for him? He'd have to Floo by himself now, and he hated that.
Narcissa squeezed the hand she still hadn't released from Sirius's shoulder. "His parents have gone. I'll take him to a guest room."
"Fine, fine," Uncle Cygnus said, already distracting himself by fumbling through the refreshments table for something. "Just go."
As Narcissa marched them past him, Sirius saw Cygnus pouring a recognizable deep red liquid into his glass. Of course.
Sirius was shaken and didn't say a word until they were in one of the smaller guest bedrooms. She walked him over to the small couch tucked into the front corner and sat him down gently. It took several minutes for him to calm down enough to speak, and even then it was breathy. He had almost hyperventilated watching his own uncle use the torture curse on Andromeda. "Narcissa, what just happened?"
She sat beside him with her back ramrod straight and her hands tightly clasped in her lap. "Andromeda was never going to be happy in this family. She wasn't made for this."
Sirius glared up. "And you are? You were okay watching your sister get tortured for - for what? For falling in love with someone Daddy didn't like?"
"It doesn't matter what I think," she hedged, still not making eye contact. "Mother and Father would never approve, this was bound to happen. I just wish…"
"I wish she hadn't even tried! If she knew it wouldn't work, she should've just left! She didn't have to get herself tortured like that!"
"She knew the risks, Sirius, but she wanted to try. She didn't want to have to go, don't you understand?" Narcissa demanded. "She loves this family, all of us! She knew what might happen, but she had to try, or she wouldn't be able to live with herself."
"And that makes it okay? I can't believe your dad did that!" Sirius ranted. "Your mum at least looked like she was upset! It was like your dad enjoyed it!"
Narcissa pulled a small pillow into her lap and played with the fringe along its edges. "He didn't. That's why he was drinking when we left."
"Everyone in this family drinks all the time," he huffed.
"There's a lot to drink about," she said with a small frown.
"Are you going to find her? And follow her?" Can I come with you? was his unasked question.
"The best thing I could do for her is to stay where I am. Mother and Father need one daughter who's going to move this family forward."
"You don't think Bellatrix will?" Sirius asked curiously. While he'd overheard talk of her using Dark Magic, no one ever seemed particularly upset or angry about it.
"I didn't say that," Narcissa said. He was a little frustrated; she couldn't seem to decide if she was willing to give him straight answers. "I just - there are more ways in life to get what you want than by demanding it. I think Bellatrix and Andromeda could both learn the art of subtlety."
"But you love them both, still?" Sirius asked.
Narcissa buried her hands in her face and sighed. "Yes, I love them both. I hate this," she added in a murmur that he pretended not to hear.
"Do you think it'll be nice?"
Her hands dropped back to her lap heavily, and she looked very tired. "Will what be nice?"
"Her wedding."
Narcissa didn't respond for a few moments. She seemed to be mulling it over. "I don't know. It's not like we can go." Sirius frowned. He hadn't pieced that part together yet, although it was obvious now. "I'm sure she'll enjoy her freedom," his cousin said, and he thought he might hear a touch of bitterness there.
"Freedom? So you… don't like all of this either?" He hadn't realized that Narcissa felt the same way as Andromeda, the way he'd been starting to feel ever since he got old enough to understand that not all families were like theirs. "Are you going to leave the family, too?"
She shook her head. "No. There's no way out, Sirius." She brought her gaze up to his. Sixteen and nine years old. He'd felt like a tiny adult back then, and had thought Narcissa a grown woman. They were just children, grappling with this. "Not for me, at least."
"I'm sorry," Sirius said. He had no idea if that was the right thing to say, and he cringed when Narcissa heaved a small sob. Girls.
She stood, fanning her red face. "Let's get you home. I'm sure your parents are worried. I'll tell Father that you changed your mind about staying the night."
Fat chance they're worried, he thought, but he followed her downstairs anyways.
Before he went into the Floo, she pulled him into a hug so tight that he worried the lace on her bosom must have left a pattern on his face. As he disappeared in the flames, she became a single black blur. He hadn't realized as a child, but Narcissa had known exactly what was going to happen that night. Andromeda had dressed for her wedding; Narcissa had dressed for her funeral.
All Sirius could think about that night, laying in bed and trying not to suffocate in the heavy air of his ancestral home, was how brave Andromeda was. He understood Narcissa's worries, but Andromeda had said damn it all and left. She should've been a Gryffindor, he thought. He would do his best to be one for her.
She had been the sole black sheep of the Black Family until his first year.
"Are you alright?" Remus asked, finally drawing Sirius out of his memories.
Was he? He hadn't spoken enough to Andromeda over the years. When this was all over, he decided, when he could walk freely, he'd introduce Harry to her. They'd be like a proper family. Narcissa might not be a lost cause. "Yeah, I'm alright," Sirius said, and he took a sip of his wine.
WC: 3499 (per gdocs)
Assignment #9: Men's History - 4. Write about a defining moment in a child's life (must be younger than 11)