Decima heard sounds of screaming as she changed for bed. Sirius shouldn't have winked at her. Despite it being winter, it was very hot in the Black house, and their sheets were so thick that she decided to go to bed in just her bra and panties. She knew it was partly her fault that Sirius was being punished again, and she felt awful about it. She couldn't believe the kinds of things his mother would do to him, and what's more, she couldn't believe Regulus could just sit there through it all, regarding his brother's pain like it was nothing. How many times had this happened?

There were sounds of running in the hall as she climbed into bed and pulled the covers over herself. Just as she turned out the light, the door flung open and Sirius ran in, covered in blood, and closed the door behind him, panting. She sat bolt upright.

"Sirius!" she said, but he hushed her. They must be looking for him. She dropped her voice to a whisper. "Oh, Merlin, what did they do to you?"

He winced and shrugged.

"They've probably done worse. You saw the blood quill, right? I've got scars all over my back from that thing."

Footsteps were approaching the door and he gave her a pleading look, diving into the closet and closing the door in front of him most of the way, but he left it open enough to see what transpired. Decima fell back on her pillows and pretended to be asleep as Orion Black came in, searching the room wildly with his eyes for his son. They stopped, however, on the supposedly sleeping Decima, obviously practically nude and curled up on her bed peacefully. After staring at her a moment, he crossed the room toward her on tiptoe.

He looked remarkably like his sons, though not quite as handsome, but certainly could have been in his younger days. His fingertips brushed Decima's bare shoulder and her eyes flew open and she shrank away from his touch.

"Mr. Black!" she said as sleepily as she could. "Can I help you with something?"

She didn't like the greedy look in his eyes. Why did she have to have this same problem with all the men in this bloody family?

"Actually," he said huskily, "you might be able to help me with a few things."

She didn't like where this was going and she hoped that Sirius would keep his cool and not jump out of the closet. With her mostly naked, it wouldn't do to be caught hiding Sirius in her closet. Decima tried to keep her voice polite and even.

"And what might those be?"

"First of all," he said, "have you seen Sirius?" She shook her head, knowing she wouldn't be able to speak the lying, and afraid that she wouldn't be able to twist the truth in a satisfactory fashion. "Also…" His eyes grazed her neck before his fingers did. "Regulus was right. You are very, very beautiful."

She wanted to scream. This had to be some sort of nightmare. He was leaning over her, undoing his pants.

"What are you doing?" she said weakly, trying to slide away from him, but he just kept moving toward her. He pulled down the sheets, despite her efforts to keep them up, and gazed hungrily down at her exposed body. She squirmed under his eyes, seeing him hurry to take off his pants. She began to hyperventilate.

"I thought you might like to take care of something for me," he murmured. "Now be a good girl and give me a kiss."

She knew what she wanted to do, what she ought to do, and that they were two totally different things. She wanted to say no and run for it. But her parents had taught her that no matter what a man with such standing in pureblood society as Orion Black asked her to do, she had best do it and do it with a smile. There was a social structure to be observed, and she had no right to be refusing this man's demands.

Decima didn't have to lift her head off the pillow very far to meet his lips; his face was so close to hers already. It was strange and wrong, and she tried to pull away, but his hand was on the back of her head, holding her in place, while his other hand was on her wrist, forcing her hand down to his sex. She struggled, knowing her parents would be furious with her for doing so. She tried to scream, but his mouth muffled the sound. The one thing she could think to do was dig her nails in where she knew he wouldn't want them, and he pulled back, crying out in pain. Angrily, he slapped her across the face.

That was the only cue necessary for Sirius to fling the closet door open and wordlessly put his father in a full Body-Bind. For good measure, he punched him in the face, knocking him unconscious. Decima stared at the man on the floor in shock, tears beginning to stream down her face.

"What the hell were you thinking?" said Sirius. "Why did you let him touch you? Why did you kiss him when he told you to?"

She shrugged.

"He told me to. He's a lot more powerful than I am. I don't know if you ever noticed, Sirius, but I do a hell of a lot of things for self-preservation."

Shaking his head he said, "You do things because your psycho pureblood parents have brainwashed you into thinking they're right. You're better than this, Decima. You deserve more than being raped by your boyfriend's father just because he's a rich and powerful pureblood who told you so."

Sirius took a deep breath and took her in with his eyes, and for a moment Decima half expected him to jump her, but for the first time he looked at her with no lust in his eyes, only pity. Sirius Black had rarely come closer to seeing her nude, but all he could think about was what had almost happened. She shook her head in amazement. Maybe he wasn't the walking, talking hormone she thought he was.

"What are you going to do?" she whispered, lifting up a hand to touch one of the gashes on his face. The blood hadn't dried yet.

"I'm getting out of here," he said firmly. "Tonight. You can come with me; I'm going to the Potter's. They'd love to have you."

Shaking her head, she replied, "No, I have to stay here."

"No, you don't! My father won't forget this. He'll not leave you alone, and living under his roof for two weeks doesn't help. Please, Decima, come with me. I want to know you're safe."

She hesitated. She wanted to go with him. She wanted to get out of there, but she knew it would feel wrong to run away, even if it was just because of the voices of her parents whispering in her ear. She needed to stay.

"No, Sirius. I'll help you leave, but I can't go with you. Regulus needs me."

With a sneer, Sirius said, "Regulus stays out of their way, he doesn't need you. He would have sat here and watched my father beat and rape you if he had been in my shoes. He can't bring himself to tell them no. Decima, please, I want to know you're safe and okay. Will you at least write to me? Write to me as often as possible, no less than once a week, and tell me if he does something to you?" His eyes were pleading and strange. "If I don't hear from you for more than I week, I'm coming back after you, and you can't make me leave you here twice."

Knowing it would be best to have an ally on the outside, she nodded, thinking she could always lie in writing if she decided she didn't want him to worry about her. Sirius gave her a chaste kiss on the cheek and whispered, "Take care of yourself, Decima. It's a loony bin around here."

"Please," she whispered, "call me CiCi."

He smiled a little half smile, which looked out of place on his bloody face, and said, "Take care, CiCi."

When he walked back out of the door, dragging his unconscious father, she figured she wouldn't see him again until school started back up in January. With a sigh, she curled up and vaguely thought to herself to wear pants and long sleeves to bed, no matter how hot it got in this blood house. She didn't want a repeat of the night's events, or even worse, an enhanced version.

She was, however, unlucky. She told Regulus what had happened, and he looked upset and stony faced, but despite all his words at school about not wanting another man to touch her, he didn't say anything when his father leered at her over breakfast, and didn't do anything when his father would make excuses to separate them, to get her alone. She didn't want to admit it, but Sirius might have been right. Regulus might have sat there and watched his father rape her. Was he just doing this for self-preservation, too? She had seen what Mr. and Mrs. Black had done to Sirius before he ran away from home. Regulus probably didn't want to become the next punching bag.

Decima had somehow found ways to avoid Orion Black until the Christmas Party at the Malfoy's, which all the pureblood families attended annually. The first thing she did was seek out her mother.

"Mother," she pleaded, "can I come home? Can I please come home?"

Her mother frowned and said, "Why, have you been misbehaving? Have you offended your hosts? Do we have to grovel with the Blacks on your behalf?"

"No, mother," she lied quickly, "not at all, I just miss you! I miss being at home with you. I didn't realize how hard it would be to spend the entire break somewhere else."

"I think you ought to stick it out, Decima," her mother said, dryly and unsympathetically. "Think it over during the party. You might change your mind."

And then, Mr. Black in the flesh came striding over.

"Ah, Orion!" said her mother happily. "It's good to see you again. I see you're a child short this year. Is Sirius ill?"

"Sirius has been disowned," said Mr. Black smoothly. "He has completely denounced the ways."

"Ah, I see," said her mother sadly. "I'm very sorry to hear that, but I suppose there's the occasional rotten egg in every bunch."

Decima was practically seeing red. How dare they talk about Sirius like that? Her mother was clearly thinking that Regulus was now the heir to the Black fortune. Sirius wasn't just some commodity that could be good or bad depending on how you wanted to use it. He was chivalrous and talented and brave and…and…

"I hope my daughter hasn't been causing any trouble for you, Orion," her mother said. Ah. She was trying to see what the real reason behind Decima's coming home was. Sneaky woman.

"Oh, not at all, Glorinda. She's a tad feisty, but I believe that can be fixed."

He was fixing Decima with one of his lustful stares and she wanted to crawl in a hole and die. Her mother was watching Orion Black watch her, and the comprehension was just visible on her face before she gave a small smirk.

"I'm sure Decima will enjoy the rest of her vacation with you. She really is a very good girl when she realizes right from wrong. I trust that you're a good teacher, Orion."

Mr. Black nodded hungrily, holding out his hand to have Decima dance with him. She looked at it as though it was a spider about to bite her, but under the obedient gaze of her mother, she took it and followed him obediently to the dance floor. As the next song started, his hand that had begun on her waste slid slowly downward and she flinched. His face was inches from hers.

"I thought you might try to get away, pet, but I know your mother well enough to know she knows what's best for you. If you have any hopes of marrying my son, you need to learn to behave."

Marry Sirius? No, he meant Regulus, obviously, as Sirius was disowned and no longer considered part of the family. Her mother and Orion were arranging their marriage? Was that what was going on?

She was able to pull away from him after the first song, saying that it was hot and that she needed to get some water, but that she would be back later, on her word, which wasn't counting for much since she had started spending time with Sirius. Seeming to think her tamed, he allowed her out of his clutches and she went outside to the garden.

When she got there, Decima saw a cluster of young men near the hedge, and one woman, who she could recognize at any distance as Bellatrix Lestrange, the newly-married cousin of Sirius and Regulus. She saw Lucius Malfoy as well, long blond hair glistening in the moonlight, and for a moment she thought she saw Sirius, but when she realized it was Regulus, she smiled and waited patiently for him to finish his conversation. He looked over, saw her watching him, and excused himself from the group, leading her to a bench nearby.

"I've just escaped your father," she said. "You'll be pleased to know that my mother has arranged that I stay the rest of the holiday, whether I want to or not, and apparently we're getting married?"

He frowned.

"I wanted to talk to you about that," he said, shifting slightly. "I've been working on providing a future for you, and I've got my plans all lined up. Everything will be set once I'm seventeen. And I think we should get married as soon as your birthday comes."

"Regulus," she said, "what are you on about? We're still in school, we've got a lot of time to think about this…"

"There is no time," he said. "There's a war coming, and I've made sure I've gotten on the right side of things. I can provide for you in ways my brother can't. He's going to be on the run, he's picked the losing side."

"Why are you babbling on about Sirius when you practically just said that we're going to get married as if I have no say in it?" she said angrily. "What the hell is going on? What side are you talking about?"

He took a deep breath and said, "I've arranged with Bella to join the Death Eaters as soon as I'm of age. She agrees you'll make a lovely addition to the family."

Her face contorted with rage.

"Death Eaters? That's the right of things to you? That's you providing for me? First Christa siding with her brother on this, now you siding with your lunatic cousin! Maybe Sirius is right about you, you would have let your father rape me, wouldn't you?"

Regulus frowned.

"You mean he hasn't–?"

"Not yet, he hasn't!" she cried. "Sirius protected me, unlike you, who just sit there meekly and let him do whatever he pleases. I should have gone with Sirius when he offered me a safe place to stay. Now I've got nothing! I thought you were never going to let another man touch me!"

Regulus's gray eyes hardened cold with anger. She knew he was just doing what he had been told was right. She had been told the same. But Decima couldn't take it lying down anymore. Something was really wrong in pureblood society, and after watching Sirius get beat to a bloody pulp by his own parents, she realized she had to get out of there before that became her. Self-preservation didn't mean lying down and taking it anymore. It meant running away before you couldn't get out alive.

Storming up to Lucius she said sweetly, "Lucius, dear, I've just remembered, I need to owl someone, would you be a dear and let me borrow yours?"

Lucius, who had always had eyes for anything reasonably pretty with two sets of lips, grinned down at her and said, "Of course, pet, follow me."

She knew it was probably stupid to just follow Lucius up to his room, especially with all of the eyes of the pureblood community watching, but she just didn't care anymore. She needed a way out of there.

Decima took Lucius's quill and thanked him, scribbling a quick message to Sirius, telling him where she was, where she would meet him, and that she needed to get out of there. Then she whispered softly to the owl, "Take this to the Potter Manor."

She watched it go with a relieved smile and turned to Lucius, expecting him to offer her his arm and escort her back downstairs, but he didn't. He just gave her that same look Orion Black had started giving her regularly.

"We should be getting back down to the party," she said nervously. "People might think something's happening. Narcissa might get worried."

"Narcissa can handle herself," he said smoothly. Were all pureblood males taught the same suave tones from birth?

"I really ought to get back to Regulus. Or just back downstairs. Mr. Black–"

"– Understands how this game works, Decima, and you should as well. You ought to understand your family's precarious position."

Her parents were both from two of the weakest lines in pureblood society and had desperately wanted a son, so that they could marry him to a better family's daughter and they could gain some credibility for their line. The problem was, all they had was her, and it was a lot harder to get a pureblood family to let their son marry down than their daughter. In the eyes of all the purebloods at that party, the Blacks were slumming, letting Regulus be with her, but she was pretty enough that nobody said it out loud, even behind closed doors. There was a reason her parents had taught her to let the pureblood boys do what they wanted with her. They were hoping she might at least get pregnant with a bastard child of some man with good station. Even that would bring up their status. Decima began to hyperventilate.

"Lucius please don't do this," she said. "Please, my family might be desperate, but Regulus would be upset."

"Regulus has his superiors to look to as well," he said casually. "He wants to play with the big boys; he needs to learn his role in the game."

Death Eaters. Of course, even the heir to the Black fortune had to start at the bottom in that elite club, and Regulus didn't have Sirius's talent and savoir-faire. Sirius would have been at the top in a heartbeat, had he wanted to. But this wasn't about Sirius, she reminded herself. This was about staying alive long enough to get out of this hell.

"Please, Lucius, I'm afraid you wouldn't enjoy it."

He raised an eyebrow.

"And why is that?"

"Because," she said, fabricating as quickly as possible, "I'm at that time of the month."

Decima hoped the blush of her lie looked something like embarrassment. Thankfully, he seemed to buy the story because he held out his arm reluctantly and led her back down the stairs to the party, where Orion Black was thankfully not in sight. Perhaps he figured she would be upstairs with Lucius for a while and he shouldn't bother waiting. At any rate, she was able to sneak to the entrance hall with the door cracked open with no one noticing her, waiting for Sirius.

He had said to write when she needed him. He would come… wouldn't he? She felt herself waiting longer and longer, wondering if she shouldn't just shut the door on the cold air and forget about it, when a hand grabbed her shoulder.

"Waiting for something?" said a voice in her ear.

It was Orion Black. He must have seen Lucius in the crowd and gone looking for her.

"I – I–" she stammered, pushing the door open as she backed out of it. Her eyes were glued to him as he approached her.

"Don't start being a bad girl again, Decima, you were being so good."

As his hand reached out for her, she heard a rumbling sound coming closer at an alarming rate, turning around to see a lone headlight in the distance, approaching rapidly. It had to be Sirius. It just had to be.

But in her anxiousness to see Sirius, she had turned her back on Orion Black, who grabbed her by the back of her gown and pulled her toward him.

"Come back inside, pet, before you regret this."

She struggled against his hold, feeling her dress rip, and knowing he was bruising her arm when he grabbed her flailing wrist. The vehicle landed at the end of the walkway and rode at her as Mr. Black forced her to turn around and smacked her across the face before groping her. She screamed and she heard Sirius's voice yelling at his father to let go of her.

Wands forgotten somewhere in the fight, Orion and Sirius Black played tug-of-war with Decima's body while she screamed and cried out in pain and fear. Regulus came running out of the house at the sound of her screaming, something all of the other purebloods were conveniently ignoring, and he yelled, "Father, please! Let go of her! You're going to kill her!"

"She deserves to die," spat Orion Black. "This little rat is a disgrace to even her family's weak line. She'll be wishing she learned to follow orders by the time I'm done with her."

His hand grabbed at her dress again and this time he ripped it clean off before Sirius managed to knock him out with a blow to the face.

"Damn it," said Sirius, ignoring his bloody hand and frowning at Decima, once more in nothing more than her knickers. "It's going to be cold on the bike and it's not a short flight. I don't want you to freeze."

"Here," said Regulus, taking off his jacket and draping it around Decima's shoulders. "I wish I could give you something else, but this is the best I've got." He looked up into his brother's stunned face and said, "I know she needs to get out of here, and I'm sorry I didn't do anything before. Send someone to get her things the day after tomorrow. Mother and Father are having tea with the Lestrange's at one. I'll have it all ready to go."

Regulus gave her a quick peck on the cheek and said, "I wish you could have been mine, Decima, I really do, but now I understand that it wouldn't have worked. We would have been forced apart eventually, one way or another."

She wasn't sure how he meant that, but she was fairly certain it wasn't as gentlemanly as it sounded. Sirius grabbed her hand and led her to his motorcycle, handing her his helmet and telling her to hold on tightly. He was right, the flight was ridiculously long, but she couldn't help but feel immensely relieved that she was safe. She was with Sirius, she was away from the purebloods who wanted to use her as a toy, and Sirius would never let anything happen to her. He had proven that.

When they finally landed at what she had assumed was the Potter Manor, he helped her off the bike and held her closely, and pulling her into the warmest, sweetest hug she had ever known.

"Merlin, I'm glad you're safe. Even with writing every day, I've done nothing but worry about you all the time. I wasn't sure you'd tell me if something was wrong."

He smiled down at her in nothing but Regulus's jacket, her underwear, and her high-heeled shoes and said, "Let's get you inside to warm up, you must be freezing."

He led her inside where she was practically assaulted by an anxious Mrs. Potter, whom Decima had never met before because the Potters didn't associate with the rest of the pureblood society. They found her some clothes and James had the house-elf make her some hot chocolate as Sirius told them the tale of his rescuing her, which was necessary because the sight of her nearly naked had made James and his father almost pass out. Mrs. Potter healed her wounds and bruises, and after some careful consideration, healed two of her ribs, which had been fractured in the struggle to get free of Sirius's father.

When they had decided that she was as taken care of as they could manage for the night and Sirius had relayed Regulus's information about her things to Mr. Potter, who said he would take care of it, they left her and Sirius sitting along on the couch, him petting her hair gently and her drinking the best hot chocolate of her life.

Decima told him the whole story of the night, about her mother and Regulus and Lucius, and Sirius's own father. His eyes grew darker with every word. When she mentioned Bellatrix and the Death Eaters, she thought he would lash out in anger, but he managed to keep himself relatively calm.

"You're safe now," he said. "That's what matters."

"Sirius," she whispered pathetically, "what am I going to do? I'll never be able to show my face in Slytherin again! I can't go home this summer. I just lost everyone and everything I ever had in one night."

"Everyone?" Sirius said. He looked a little hurt.

"Well," she said, "maybe not everyone. Gwen will probably talk to me, and I don't think Regulus hates me." He was definitely pouting. "And you, of course."

"Damn right, you've got me," he growled, setting down her cocoa and catching her lips in a rough kiss. She didn't push him away. She welcomed attention from him. He wasn't taking advantage of her because he knew she couldn't say no, he actually wanted her, and in that moment, she wanted him too.

It was different than with Regulus. She had expected him to be forceful, like his kisses, but he was cautious, maybe because of what she had just been through. Still, there was a roughness to every movement that was Sirius through and through. The way he touched her bare skin made her body ache for him, and he could tell she wanted him too. It didn't take long for them to undress; they were both so gone to their passions. His hands roamed her body feverishly before he got permission from her eyes to enter her.

It was bliss. It was nothing like being with Regulus. She didn't know what it was, but Sirius just knew exactly where to go, exactly what to do to make her want to scream, which she didn't, because Mr. and Mrs. Potter were sleeping just down the hall. He kissed her just as they came together, catching the cries she could no longer hold in with his mouth.

Panting, he conjured up a blanket and cuddled her.

"Well, this is new," he said. "I've never slept with someone on James's couch before."

She laughed softly, letting it hit her that she had just shagged Sirius Black.

"So, what does this mean?"

He kissed her forehead and whispered, "It means I love you, silly."