AN: Oh, Merlin. I'm SO sorry for the tremendously long wait, guys! :( I did say I'd be updating quite a bit during my summer holidays, didn't I? But I was suffring from PHPD (Post Harry Potter Depression) as I'm sure many of you did too. So you will understand, right? But I was cheered up when I got to meet Evanna Lynch! YAY ME! To make up for the long wait, I put in an extra dose of iggle piggle Sirius with cherries on top! - I know how much you all love him! Forgiven? *smiles hopefully*
Chapter 9
A Day With the Blacks
A dusty sort of silence hung in the formal dining room at Grimmauld Place. The only audible sound was the scratching noise of Kreacher dragging the metal dustpan behind him on the old wooden floor of the hall outside.
Narcissa stared down at the web of lines spread across her palms; awkwardly avoiding the eyes of the others. However their looks were also cast downwards. Except Aunt Walburga's steely gaze.
It was only hours since the disastrous sorting in which, by some cruel joke of fate, Sirius, the youngest among them, had ended up in Gryffindor. This had caused a family scandal big enough for all of them to be pulled out of school to attend this 'emergency family council' as Walburga had called it.
The children were not amused. But neither was Aunt Walburga, who had spent the first two hours upon their arrival shrieking furiously about shattered image and disgraced family pride. Now, however, the entire Black family sat in stunned und tense silence around the dining table. This was because Sirius had eventually managed to get a word in edgeways and promptly stated that he was more than happy to be a Gryffindor. This had shut his mother up.
Narcissa glanced at her sister Andromeda who was sitting stiffly in the chair next to her. Their eyes met briefly before they both risked a peek at their aunt seated at the head of the table on what could only be described as a throne.
Walburga Black, an already mighty woman, seemed to have bloated like a bullfrog, sporting an impressive collection of double chins and a rather purple complexion.
"Eh..." Sirius cleared his throat, causing all eyes to snap up and focus on him. "If all we're going to do is sit here in these incredibly uncomfortable and exceptionally ugly chairs in silence, then I really would like to go back to school now...If you don't mind, mother."
And then, Auntie Walburga basically transformed into a raging Hippopotamus: "ARRRGGHHHH! None of you little beasts are going anywhere before this situation is dealt with! No relative of mine will ever be in the vicinity of Gryffindor let alone be a member of that disgusting House!"
"I hate you!" Sirius slammed his hands down on the table, his chair falling to the floor behind him as he stood up in rage, "I hate all of you! Every single one of you! You're all a bunch of snobby, prejudiced purists! You all think it's such a disgrace to be tagged as noble and brave, but you know, at least it's a whole lot better than being stuck with the crap everyone else says about you!" Turning to his brother he said, "Reg, do you know everyone calls you Hogwarts's Man Whore? And Narcissa – you're the school slut; what a surprise! Bella – holy hippogriff – you're the most fucked up bitch that ever set foot in Hogwarts! And Andy, you know what they call you? – The stuck up little Black Brat!"
"That is enough from you!" Walburga shrieked in rage at her youngest son, "Off to your rooms! – All of you!" she snapped as nobody moved to leave.
"Great, now we're stuck in this bloody shithole 'till mother finds some way to bribe the Governors into re-sorting the monster. Brilliant." Regulus muttered flatly as he trudged up the stairs followed by his two cousins. "Merlin, the first day of school's always the best! Avery was going to blow up Slughorn's toilet! – And I'm missing it!"
"Relax, we'll be out of here in no time..." Narcissa said quietly, closing Regulus's bedroom door behind her. "Your mother will soon cop on that she can't just change what house Sirius is in; no matter how hard she tries. The Governors are powerless and the Sorting Hat can't be bribed. It's a hat."
Andromeda was standing in the far corner of the room, tossing an old Remembrall from one hand to the other. "Walburga's a stubborn woman though, there's no denying the fact that we could be stuck here for more than just the first day of school."
"But Quidditch practise starts in two days! I can't miss that or I'll be off the team!"
"Regulus, will you calm your flaming Hippogriffs already? Nobody's going to kick you off the team, you're our best Chaser and with Luce and Finn gone we'll need our best." Narcissa said, rolling her eyes.
Andromeda groaned. "Ugh, I can't believe this is happening! Being pulled out of bed at two a.m. to attend some crazy family council is so humiliating! I'll be the joke of the school!"
"You mean, we're going to be the joke of the school." Regulus flopped down on the bed next to Narcissa. "Mother's raging on about shattered family image, but she's just made it so much worse! We all have images to uphold, you know!"
"I want the ground to just open up and swallow me." Narcissa said simply.
Meanwhile, two doors down, in a dark little room an equally little boy was throwing a ginormous tantrum.
"YOU ARE SO MEAN TO ME!" Sirius screamed, hammering his fists against the locked door, "I HATE YOU! I'M GOING TO REPORT THIS TO THE MINISTRY AND THEN YOU'LL ALL BE LOCKED UP AND SENT TO PRISON! THIS HAS GOT TO BE ABOUT TEN TYPES TO SOCIALLY AND POLITICALLY INCORRECT! I AM REPORTING THIS! THIS RIGHT HERE IS CHILD ABUSE! YOU CAN'T LOCK ME UP – YOU HAVE NO RIGHT!" he bellowed, throwing the family heirloom lamp at the door. It shattered upon impact, but Sirius continued his rampage, regardless. "I AM DISOWNING MYSELF! I DON'T WANT TO BE PART OF THIS FAMILY A SECOND LONGER! I'LL LIVE ON THE STREETS OF LONDON AND THEN YOU CAN BLAME YOURSELVES IF I DIE A SLOW AND PAINFUL DEATH!"
Just as he was picking up the ancient skull of a Romanian Longhorn to smash against the door, it flew open and Regulus came storming in, his eyes flashing dark like the burning fires of hell.
He stopped just inched away from Sirius's red face and curled his fingers around his brother's scruff – effectively lifting him off the ground. "What. The. FUCK do you think you're doing!" he hissed venomously. "Do you want us all to be locked up in here 'till the end of our days? Huh? Do you? Because, I swear to Merlin, if you don't shut that bloody Gryffindor gob of yours, Squirt, and make me miss Quidditch season then I will personally rip your guts out with my own bare hands!"
Sirius just clenched his jaw and gritted his teeth, giving his brother the most terrifying death-glare he could muster. "And give me that!" Regulus snapped, snatching the Romanian Longhorn's skull from his brother's grip and slamming it down on the shelf beside him with such force that the tip of one of the teeth crumbled away to dust.
"For Merlin's sake, Reg, put Sirius down. This isn't going to help anything." Narcissa said firmly, standing backlit in the open doorway, arms crossed.
"Did you not hear the abuse he was screaming? Mother would have us incarcerated here for sure if she'd heard any of that!" Regulus debated; nevertheless he dropped Sirius who fell to the floor with a thud.
"Yes, well, just calm down, alright? We'll just wait and see what happens; even your mother can't hold us here forever - Dumbledore, no matter how cracked he is, wouldn't allow it. And we'll just have to trust in that."
"Fuck Dumbledore – I'm not putting any trust in that old spaz to bail us out of Azkaban's little brother! The jailor would have his beardy old head if he so much as knocked at the front door!"
Just then they heard the third step on the stairs creak, as it always does when somebody is coming up. "Shit!" Regulus hissed, before rushing out of Sirius's room dragging Narcissa behind him. She just about managed to close the door quietly and lock it, leaving her little cousin alone with his bubbling temper again.
Andromeda raised a dark eyebrow at Regulus and her sister as they came barging in again, pushing and shoving in their hurry. Their door was barely closed when the sharp tap-tap of footsteps was heard walking past outside.
"I DEMAND TO BE LET OUT!" they heard Sirius bellow. Then there was silence. And more silence. And a bit more silence. And quite a lot more silence. Then a door slammed and they heard the footsteps go back downstairs. Narcissa, Andromeda and Regulus all exchanged worried looks.
"Um, what was that?" Andromeda asked after a short while of confused silence.
"I have no idea..." Regulus replied, already turning the doorknob. "but I'm going to go find out. Coming?"
The three of them all tip-toed back down the corridor, careful not to step on the creaky floorboards, and quietly unlocked Sirius's door. They found him sitting on his bed, arms crossed and scowling.
"What's the frowny face about, Squirt? Not going to throw any more stuff around and generally behave like a bloody little Jarvey?" Sirius did not reply, he just scowled some more.
"What did they say?" Narcissa asked eagerly, sitting down next to her cousin, "Any news as to when we're being released?" Once again, Sirius just scowled and turned his back on them.
"Guys, he's obviously not in the mood to talk," Andromeda said, turning back to the door. She did not see Sirius whip around and make a mad gesture with his hands, "...which means," she continued, completely oblivious, "that it's bad news. We're stuck here 'till we rot."
But Regulus and Narcissa weren't listening to her anymore; they were looking at Sirius who's wild gesturing was continuing. Finally, Regulus got so frustrated with his brother that he shouted, "Just tell us, for Merlin's sake!" To which Sirius just replied with a desperate "Mhmmmmhhh!"
Regulus came so close to grabbing Sirius by the scruff again, but Andromeda stopped him. "Wait! I think he's tongue-tied!" As soon as she'd said this Narcissa grabbed his chin and peered into his mouth. Then she nodded, "Yeah, question is – do we leave him like this?"
"Of course not! He might be able to tell us when we're being released!" Regulus said, then he hesitated, "Actually...if we leave him like this we'll have peace and quiet and Mother won't now we were ever in here."
The others agreed, but Sirius looked positively outraged.
As soon as this was agreed, there was a considerably loud knock on the front door which could be heard all the way to in Sirius's little room. With their ears pressed against the door they could hear Walburga screeching, Bella bellowing, Orion laughing drunkenly, Cygnus shouting for quiet and Druella shrieking some more all mixed up with an impressive amount of stomping and slamming. Then they heard the front door being flung open and Walburga's steely voice saying, "What?" Anything said after that was just unintelligible muttering to the four children upstairs. Then they heard the front door slam. "Do you think it's Dumbledore coming to save us?" Andromeda asked hopefully, pulling away from the door.
"I doubt it, to be honest..." Regulus muttered, running a hand through his messy dark curls. "T'was probably some charity guy from Saint Mungo's looking for money; they come around quite a lot, although we've never given them anything."
But just as the last word exited his mouth, they heard the creak of the third step on the stairs again. Narcissa, Andromeda and Regulus once again left the tongue-tied Sirius locked in his room alone to crowd hastily into Regulus's. A heavy set of footsteps which unquestioningly belonged to Walburga was followed by very quick, little ones. The footsteps stopped outside their door, and the three teenaged collectively took a step backwards as they watched the doorknob turn.
Narcissa let out a breath of air she didn't even know she was holding as the stout figure of Professor Flitwick stood swaying nervously in the doorway.
"Professor!" Regulus all but gasped, unable to believe that Dumbledore had indeed, in his own way, come to save them.
"Yes, yes, Mr. Black. Quite, yes, I'm here to return you to school...on Headmaster Dumbledore's wishes, yes, yes." Their short Charms Professor squeaked, glancing quickly up at the giant bullfrog next to him.
Walburga did not look pleased. At all. Narcissa swore she could see steam pouring from her aunt's nose.
But all was well. Professor Flitwick had untied Sirius's tongue the instant they all arrived back in the teacher's lounge at Hogwarts by floo. The young boy had never looked so relieved in his life. One of the Gryffindor prefects led him back to his dorm where he spent all night sitting up in bed, telling his new friend, James, all about how he was going to report his family first thing the next morning. He never did.
Regulus was pleased to hear that Avery had failed to blow up Slughorn's toilet and would be attempting it again during the weekend.
Andromeda's reputation was not harmed in the slightest as nobody had actually seen her being dragged out of bed at two a.m. and somebody had started a rumour in Slytherin explaining the Black's disappearances.
And finally, Narcissa fell onto bed with a wide grin spread across her face; happy to be back in the place she called home. And she had a pretty good idea as to had who started the rumour about Grandpapa Pollux tragically falling to his death during an attempt to sit on a Common Welsh Green causing the disappearance of the Blacks...For when Narcissa first entered their room, Maddy had hastily shoved a copy of Magical Fatalities: Volume 64 under her bed.
Life could go back to normal now.
AN: A lovely brownie with extra molten chocolate on top awaits everyone who reviews! :) You know how much I love them!