"I cannot stand another minute in this house!"
The force of Sirius's outburst as he hurled himself out of his seat on the drawing room sofa made his younger brother, Regulus, flinch from where he sat in the corner of the room, his wide eyes peeking out from behind his enormous volume on ancient magical practices of the British Isles.
"Sit down, Sirius Orion" Walburga snapped at her elder son as she looked up from the embroidery work in her lap.
"For Merlin's sake, I've been sitting down all day!" Sirius shouted back, marching across the room and leaning against the wall beside the window. "If I spend any longer sat on that sofa my legs will get stuck at right angles"
"Don't talk such nonsense" Walburga's attention returned to her embroidery hoop. She guided her needle and thread through the fabric with her wand, a delicate task which required one to spend long hours in quiet concentration.
Something which Sirius Black had famously never been able to do.
"This is nonsense!" Sirius pulled back the heavy velvet curtain obscuring the tall window and peered out at the empty street wistfully. "Four days. Four torturously long days we've been stuck in this house. I don't know how I'm supposed to stand another single day in here, let alone weeks"
Exactly a week ago, life in the wizarding world as everyone knew it had been turned entirely on its head. Sporadic rumours of a mysterious illness sweeping the country had been floating about for several weeks. An illness which some likened to dragon pox for the greenish tinge afflicting its victims, whilst others swore it was a new stain of spattergroit due to the the diseases' shared characteristic purple pustules.
But the reality was, the Head Healer of St. Mungo's had explained solemnly in the Daily Prophet and on the wireless, that this mysterious illness was something new entirely. New, puzzling, and worryingly contagious. And all with no known cure or treatment beyond vague, symptomatic potion remedies. The Ministry of Magic had acted swiftly, putting the country's entire magical population into a state of strict, legally-binding quarantine whilst they battled to find out more about the plague blighting the population and how to treat it.
"Until such time that a cure for this disease is found and it is brought under control," the Minister had declared, "All wizards, witches and other species of near-human status are required to remain strictly within the boundaries of their own homes at all times. There is to be no mixing of households, no leaving home for any reason other than that of an exceptional emergency, and travel throughout the country is expressly forbidden without express permission from the Department of Magical Transportation. Until further notice, we are in a state of nationwide lockdown"
"What utter tripe!" Walburga had shrieked at the wireless the night the announcement was made. "What complete, absolute drivel. It is a mild contagion, nothing more. Why, the Prophet said only yesterday, no one has yet died of this illness, and only a few are ill enough to require hospitalisation. Those of good health have been recovering perfectly fine within a few days. The Ministry cannot simply shut down the whole of society over something no more serious than a bout of flu!"
But shut down the whole of society they did. The very next day, there came the announcement that, in line with the Ministry's orders for all members of the wizarding community to remain isolated at home, Hogwarts school had been forced to fully close, for the first time in it's near-thousand year history. It's students were sent home the following day, almost two months before the summer holidays had been due to begin.
"Disrupting the children's education for the sake of a flimsy illness" Walburga had seethed as she marched her way along the platform at Kings' Cross station, her husband and sons following in her wake. "Utter madness!"
Four days later, Walburga's passionate protesting against the seriousness of the mystery illness were tempered by the mood of the daily bulletins on the wireless turning from hesitant worry to a state of all-out worry. Reports of rapidly increasing case numbers filled the air waves, though thankfully still no fatalities had been reported. Nevertheless, news from St. Mungo's told of worries that the Healers were no closer to finding a remedy capable of curing the illness, nor of preventing its spread. The number of people being admitted to the hospital for treatment of the disease were increasing daily, and there began to be worried whispers of the suggestion that the hospital's isolation wards may not be able to cope if the current trend continued.
The Minister once again came on air to repeat his orders of a complete national lockdown in the hopes of stopping the illness from spreading any further.
"I cannot promise you that the road ahead will be easy, nor that it will be over by next week" the Minister had said, solemnly. "But what I can promise you is that with courage, resilience and the care of one another, we will find our way through these trying times"
"It can't hurt to just slip out for a quick leg-stretch, surely" Sirius murmured to himself as he gazed out of the drawing room window at the twilight sky.
"You'll do no such thing" Walburga hissed warningly, glaring at her son.
"But why not?!" Sirius tossed down the curtain and sighed heavily. "It's stifling in this house! Truly, if I don't get so much as a breath of fresh air soon I'm going to suffocate in here!"
Sirius tugged irritably at the stiff collar of the evening robes he had reluctantly donned after his nightly squabble with his mother prior to dinner and glared at the roaring fireplace at the centre of the drawing room.
"I've said no, Sirius Orion" Walburga glared threateningly at her rebellious sixteen-year-old. "I forbid it"
"You do realise this is false imprisonment?" Sirius shot back. "You're holding me against my will! I can't stand it, being locked up in here. It's truly like being in prison! "
"There's really no need to be quite so dramatic" Walburga picked up her embroidery hoop again. With delicate jerks of her wand, she finished the last tip of the last petal of a rose she'd been working on, a little more each evening after dinner. "This is a large and fine house. A prison is hardly a worthy description"
Sirius snorted and turned his gaze back towards the window.
"Isn't it? I think a prison is a perfect description for a fortress in which all the windows and doors are locked to prevent the inmates from escaping"
"If you could be trusted to do as you're told and stay in the house, then I wouldn't have any need to lock them, would I?"
Scarcely twelve hours after arriving home from Hogwarts, Walburga had caught Sirius in the process of trying to slip out of the front door for what he referred to as "a little stroll". She had shooed him away from the door with a threatening wave of her wand and had immediately cast her strongest locking charm on the door, repeating the process on every door and window in the house. As an extra precaution, the jar of Floo powder had been removed from it's holder beside the fireplace. Walburga Black was taking no chances when it came to her slippery eldest son.
"But why can't I just go for a quick walk?" Sirius whined, his frustration clearly growing. "You heard that Healer on the news this morning, the disease only spreads through person-to-person contact. I'm hardly going to catch anything strolling down an empty street!"
Fed up with Sirius's arguing, Walburga saw red.
"Sit down, Sirius Orion" she ordered loudly, her whole body going rigid with anger.
The room fell into a tense silence, broken only by the crackling of the fireplace, whilst its occupants waited on Sirius's next move.
From his spot in the corner, hidden behind his book, Regulus's eyes flickered anxiously from his mother to his brother.
At last, Sirius conceded.
"Fine" he sighed. In the absence of any other seat in the room, he flung himself down onto the opposite end of the sofa to his mother.
He slouched lazily, pressing himself as far into the corner - and as far away from his mother - as he could possibly get. "What do you care if I want to go out, anyway?" Sirius rested his chin on his fist, sulkily. "You think this whole lockdown's a load of bollocks anyway"
From the corner of the room, Regulus's eyes widened over the rim of his book at his brother's choice of words.
"Mind your tongue!" Walburga shrieked, throwing her work down into her lap once more and turning in her seat to face her son. "You will not use such language in this house!"
"But that's the point, don't you get it?" Sirius threw his arms wide open, dramatically. "I don't want to use such language in this house. I don't want to be in this house! And anyway, you can't deny it's true! All you do is rave about how it's all rubbish every time the news comes on the wireless"
It was true, of course. Walburga Black was unashamedly - if anything, quite proudly - the biggest and loudest critic of the Ministry's decision to shut down wizarding society.
"I tell you, it's all drivel what they're saying" she had proclaimed that very morning as the family listened to the morning news bulletin over breakfast. "All this nonsense about this illness posing a risk to all wizards. I hardly think that likely. After all, we know of no one in our circles who has been afflicted. Whenever they see fit to share any names, it's always some half-blood or other-" She paused halfway through gathering a forkful of scrambled eggs, grimacing. "-or worse"
"I'll not deny, I do not approve of these restrictions" Walburga gave a haughty sniff as she guided her needle and thread with her wand. "Truly, I cannot understand what evidence that good-for-nothing Minister is basing is actions on"
"A hospital full of highly experienced healers at a loss for how to treat an illness infecting more and more people every day. You're right, it's really not much to go on, is it?"
Walburga's head turned sharply to face her firstborn. Her grey eyes glowered at him angrily in response to his impertinent, sarcastic tone.
"An illness which amounts to little more than a bout of the flu" she snapped in reply. "And if this disease is so contagious, then pray tell, why do we know of no one who has caught it?"
"Pure luck" said Sirius, dismissively.
"Hardly" Walburga shot back. "Not one person from families of proper breeding has come down with it. It seems perfectly clear that this disease only affects those of lower quality blood"
From the other end of the sofa, Sirius let out a bark of a laugh so loud that his brother flinched in surprise from the corner.
"Are you serious?" he asked through fresh laughter. "Surely even you can't genuinely believe that someone's blood status affects whether or not they fall ill?"
"And why couldn't it?" Walburga's voice was raised, challengingly. "As I said, no one from our circles has caught this disease. One can only suppose that our higher-quality blood affords us a degree of immunity. And I, for one, cannot see why we ought not to be allowed to continue our lives freely, as such"
"Merlin, I can't listen to any more this rubbish" Sirius launched himself out of his seat again and paced across the room, heaving for the door. "I need to get out of here"
"You will do no such thing!"
Walburga had sprang to her feet, her wand brandished threateningly. A second later, the drawing room door slammed shut before Sirius had even reached it.
"But why not?" Sirius yelled, exasperated. He pulled at his hair in frustration, pacing up and down the drawing room like a caged lion. "If our immaculate blood affords us as much protection as you say, then why can't I just go for a stroll?"
"Because we are in lockdown, Sirius Orion!"
"So?" Sirius held his ground against his mother. His eyes glimmered challengingly. "As you just said, it's not as if I'm going to catch anything"
"That- That is beside the point!" Walburga's words caught in her throat, her conviction clearly wavering. "The Ministry will know the moment you leave the house. You know they've placed detection charms all over the place. I will not have you bringing this family into disrepute by breaking the law and having your face plastered all over the newspapers beneath some ghastly headline!"
Sirius let out a dramatically loud groan and stomped back across the room to his spot beside the window.
"For God's sake, even the Ministry of Magic can't put detection charms across the whole of bloody London!" he shouted, running a restless hand through his hand again. "They'll be none the wiser if I just nipped out for a quick-"
"You are not leaving this house, Sirius Orion. Not for one moment, and that is final!"
Walburga's voice was razor-sharp, teetering on the bring of becoming aggressive. It was enough to assure her son that to shout back was not wise - but not to stifle his argumentativeness completely.
"So what am I meant to do, then?" Sirius threw open his arms, questioningly. "I'm so bloody bored! There's nothing decent to do in this God-awful house!"
"Perhaps you ought to concern yourself with your schoolwork. I imagine that might be a more productive use of your time than complaining against your current circumstances"
The sound of Orion Black's even voice from the armchair at the far end of the room drew the mother and son's attention away from their argument and towards him, just in time to see him fold his copy of the evening edition of the Daily Prophet in half and set it down onto the side table beside him.
Lockdown suited Orion. For a man who's idea of a perfect day consisted of hours on end spent hidden away in his private study beneath a pile of paperwork and accounts volumes, the fact that the sort of social outings, call-paying and business meetings he so loathed were now made illegal meant that life had taken on what he would describe as state of perfection.
With each day following the same, precise pattern of long periods spent at work, broken only by four meals a day with his family and rounded off with an evening of relaxation around the drawing room fire, Orion was in no particular mood for the state of national emergency to be declared over. And if he shared any of his wife's outlandish claims that those of pure blood possessed some form of immunity against the illness ravaging the country, he was certainly in no hurry to join her in her proposals that they be allowed to resume their previous state of normality whilst the rest of the population cowered in the snug isolation of their homes.
His wife and son's heated discussion, lingering on the brink of becoming one of their famous arguments, and thus threatened the enjoyment of his peaceful evening by the fire. As such, it was time to intercede.
"I don't have any schoolwork to do" Sirius mumbled in reply to his father's remark, folding his arms and slouching against the wall.
"Don't lie to your father, Sirius Orion" Walburga snapped. "Of course you have schoolwork to do - just as your brother does"
With Hogwarts forced to close and the academic year cut short, each student, including the Black brothers, had been owled a heavy parcel of tasks to complete at home, in the hopes that the current unfortunate circumstances would not affect their progress too greatly.
"I had schoolwork to do" Sirius replied, shooting his mother a snide look. "I've just finished it, is all"
"You've finished it?!"
At the sound of Regulus's surprised voice, the other three Blacks each jumped with a degree of surprise which one might afford to a mouse hiding in the corner which had suddenly decided it had something to say.
Regulus had set his book down in his lap and was staring wide-eyed at his brother, open-mouthed with shock.
"Yes, why?" Sirius asked his brother in a bored tone.
"But there was such an awful lot of it! I'm barely halfway through" There was something of a note of jealousy in the youngest Black's voice. "Did Professor McGonagall perhaps set you Gryffindors less work than Professor Slughorn set us Slytherins?"
"Don't be thick, Reg, we'll all have been set the same amount" Sirius rolled his eyes, slumping lower against the wall and turning away to stare out of the window. "It was easy, though. I polished off the last of it this morning"
Regulus eyed his brother with noticeable, silent envy. He cast his eyes downward at the book in his lap and sat up ever-straighter in his seat - the image of absolute opposite to his elder brother's lazy, bored posture.
"In that case, perhaps you ought to consider giving your work a second look-over" Orion suggested, in a tone which assured that this was indeed not a suggestion. "It wouldn't do to submit work of sub-par quality on account of it being rushed"
"I didn't rush it!" Sirius replied, clearly put out at the suggestion. "Anyway, the tasks were all on topics we'd already covered last term - it was all fresh in my mind. It's hardly my fault that the school decided not to set anything even a tad more challenging. I wish they had - at least it would have given me something to fill the hours between meals"
"Well if you've finished your homework, then you ought to be occupying yourself with additional studying" Orion added. He folded his hands neatly across his lap, unperturbed by his son's cocksure display. "You ought to be revising for your OWL examinations"
Sirius scoffed and rolled his eyes.
"I don't need to revise" he insisted. "I know all I need to know for the exams. And anyway, they've been postponed until August. I've got bags of time"
"Yes, time which you ought to be spending in preparation, however confident you might be!" Walburga's eyes flashed angrily at her firstborn before instantly softening as she turned to look at her younger son. "Your brother has been undertaking several hours of extra study each day - in addition to his homework"
Sirius's expression soured like milk at the way Walburga flashed an approving smirk in his younger brother's direction.
At the least the little runt had the good sense to go bright red at the unwanted attention.
"Yes, well, Reg is a bookworm, it's the only enjoyment the poor sod gets out of life" Sirius gave a snort of dark amusement. "He's having a grand old time of it in this lockdown, aren't you, Reg? Days on end holed away in the library with your nose buried in a book. Your idea of paradise, isn't it?"
Regulus flushed a deeper shade of beetroot, practically withering under the weight of the truth in Sirius's words.
Walburga, however, turned white with anger.
"Do not speak to your brother in that tone, Sirius Orion!" she shrieked. "At least Regulus Arcturus is utilising this situation. Making the most of his free time. He does not waste his efforts on endlessly complaining like a petulant child. You ought to take a-"
"Yes, yes, I know, I ought to take a leaf out of one of Regulus Arcturus's many books" Sirius spoke in what was a painfully accurate imitation of his mother's prim, nagging voice. "Or better yet, the whole tree. You know what? I'd rather be out there-" He pointed a finger at the window. "-braving my chances with this bloody disease than stuck in upstairs in that stuffy old library all day"
Regulus went slack-mouthed in horror at his brother's words.
"Sirius, really!" he said. "You ought not to say such things! This illness can be really quite dangerous"
"Not according to her" Sirius nodded in the direction of their mother, who's nostrils flared angrily at the gesture. "If she's to be believed, I could go running up and down the isolation wards of St. Mungo's' Infectious Ailments department and make it out unscathed, all on account of my impeccable pedigree. Not that you'd think it, with the way she's holding us all prisoner inside this place. You'd think she'd practice what she preaches, wouldn't you?"
As his wife opened her mouth, no doubt to rise to the deliberate provocation and unleash the worst of her fury on their eldest son, Orion beat her to it.
"I think we've heard quite enough on your opinions on that particular topic" he said firmly to his son as he strode forward to stand beside his wife. "And if studying for your upcoming school examinations is not a your idea of a suitable pass time, perhaps I can propose an alternative"
Sirius stood against the wall, hunched over and scowling - the image of teenage petulance. A stark contrast to the image of his mother and father directly before him. Orion and Walburga stood tall and proud, a united front, before their son.
Sirius looked suitably one edge as he awaited the rest of his father's speech.
"Since you find yourself at so much of a loss as to how best to fill the hours of the day, I suggest that you join me in my study tomorrow, so that I might provide you with a more productive means with which to occupy your time"
"And what, precisely, would that be?" Sirius's voice was as hard and cold as stone, devoid of all trace of his previous cocky self-sureness.
"I think it's high time I began your introduction to the running of family affairs" said Orion. "If your school subjects fail to live up to your high standards, perhaps you ought to concern yourself with studies of a nature which is more, shall we say, relevant to your position"
"What?!"
Sirius's face had drained of colour. His eyes grew wide and his mouth fell open in shock as he tried to process his father's words.
"You heard your father, Sirius Orion" Walburga said, making little effort to hide the smug approval of her tone in response to her husband's suggestion. "It's high time you began to look towards your future role"
"Yes, quite" Orion nodded in agreement. "You're sixteen, now, after all. Seventeen in just a few months. It's perfectly suitable that you should begin your formal training for your role as my heir"
"But- but you can't!" Sirius spluttered in shock. "I haven't even finished school, yet! I still have exams to get through!"
"Oh?" Orion cocked his head curiously and arched a single eyebrow. "How curious - a few short minutes ago you were of the opinion that your school exams were of little concern to you. I'd have thought you'd be glad of the chance to get stuck into something a little more challenging"
"Yes, but not that!" Sirius cried. His eyes flickered between his mother and father, with a sense of desperate urgency. "I'm not spending hours on end every day holed up inside that study, buried in a pile of paperwork!"
"Really, Sirius, there's no need to exaggerate" Orion couldn't help an ever-so-slight upward crease forming in the corner of his mouth - the merest suggestion of a smirk at his firstborn's dramatics. "Of course you won't be 'buried beneath a pile of paperwork', as you so put it. We'll start slowly, naturally. You'll observe, at first, and learn. And after a few days, you can begin undertaking a few simple accounting exercises, perhaps proof-read a document or two"
He paused for a moment, taking in the look of complete and utter dread which had overtaken Sirius's face - the face which he himself had once worn, several decades' worth of stress ago.
"Come now, boy, you needn't look so glum" said Orion with a knowing twinkle in his eye. "Just think of it as an extra subject of learning. A form of home-schooling, shall we say"
It was as though a spark had suddenly ignited within Sirius. His desperate expression hardened into one of outrage, and he lunged himself forward, past his parents and into the centre of the room.
"Your idea of a fun way to pass the time might be to bury yourself under a pile of parchment and ledgers, but it certainly isn't mine!" he declared. "Why on earth would I want to spend hours on end shut away, staring at endless pages of meaningless figures in that dusty old study of yours?"
"If you put your mind to it, which I have no doubt you are capable of doing, I'm quite sure the figures will not be meaningless to you for long. And-" Orion's gaze sharpened. "-I can assure you, my study is not dusty"
His expression remained rigidly serious, but there was the tiniest glimmer of amusement in Orion's eye. Whether it was the elder wizard's attempt at a joke or simply the the firelight reflecting in his silver eyes, it was the final straw which broke the back of his son's endurance.
"Only this family-" Sirius seethed bitterly, lifting his chin defiantly high. "-would use a state of national, biological emergency to aid its quite frankly relentless persecution against one of its own.
"So you are a member of this family after all" Orion quipped, feigning surprise. "Forgive me, your repeated declarations of a rather opposing stance on the matter over the last four days had led me to believe your were lingering under some false impression of your place - and duty"
Sirius stared at his father, stunned into a rare state of silence.
"I- I didn't-" he managed to stammer before his father cleanly cut him off.
"Now that we've rectified that little misunderstanding, I trust I can rely on you to make your way to my study promptly after breakfast tomorrow. 9am sharp"
Sirius shot his father a look which bordered on murderous and let out a sharp breath like an angry bull before turning swiftly round and marching towards the door without so much as a word of farewell to his parents or brother.
"Let him go" Orion took hold of his wife's wrist as she instinctively lurched forward to follow their son. "He's just tired. It's getting late, after all"
Walburga shot her husband a cautious look as he consulted the time on his pocket watch.
"I wouldn't rely on him following your instructions" she said, shooting the empty doorway which had taken Sirius away a look of deep disapproval. "I expect he'll have to be hauled up to the study come nine o'clock"
"Oh, I shouldn't think so"
Walburga shot her husband a look of confusion.
"He will not come willingly, you mark my words!" she insisted, stubbornly. "That boy-"
"Do you recall, at any point during our conversation, that Sirius Orion actually said he would not come to the study and undertake the work I set him to?"
Walburga tried to hide her look of awkward second-guessing beneath a façade of airy lack of caring.
"Of course, you cannot recall hearing such words, because he did not say them" Orion answered his own question in absence of his wife's input.
He strode back across the room to his previously-occupied armchair and took up the copy of the Daily Prophet he had been previously engrossed in. On the folded front page flickered the image of a flustered-looking Head Healer of St. Mungo's attempting to feign off the prying journalists' floating quills and notepads, beneath a headline announcing the day's tally of new infections.
"Our son may put on an outward image of reluctance to accept the inevitable, Walburga," Orion continued as he ticked his newspaper under one arm and beckoned for his wife to join him. "But with careful application of the correct treatment, I suspect he will quite soon be brought firmly under control"
He indulged himself in a rare smile as his wife took his arm.
"Much, I suspect, like this epidemic we find ourselves presently caught up in" he added as the pair made their way out of the drawing room to retire for the night.
Alone at last in the darkened drawing room, silent, save for the quiet crackling of the fire, Regulus let out a sigh of relief from his darkened corner.
Perhaps it was the inability for anyone to leave the house and work up any degree of fatigue which might send them to their beds earlier, but he found that the post-dinner ordeals in the drawing room had been lingering on slightly longer with each passing day - and with them, the time he had to wait until he found himself mercifully alone with his books.
A warm fire, a good book and a distinct lack of rowing mothers and brothers to break his concentration.
If days could exist always in this state of tranquillity, Regulus was firmly of the opinion that he'd be quite content for this lockdown to go on for quite some time.