A/N: Funny I should say this, but this story line I had keeps extending... more of it in the next chapter :)
Summer had proved to be quite beneficial for Rachel for the time being. She had gone swimming at the lake nearly everyday, been biking on most of the trails around her house, and gone to the cinema with Lily and Mary.
But she still woke up at four in the morning every day.
And now she was sitting on a woven chair on her porch sipping tea at that early time of the morning.
Rachel was realizing that she could use this unfortunate habit to her advantage. She always found time to think because of this. What she thought about always varied, and her thinking never really brought her to a conclusion but further confused her situations. But she had more time to think than she ever had before.
It was that early morning of July the first that she found herself thinking about Sirius. Which was ridiculous, because she didn't care for him anymore. He had managed to prove her right; he didn't care for relationships. And Rachel was perfectly fine with accepting that.
She heard the door creak open and she jumped as she turned around to see her dad exiting the house and locking the door. When he turned around and saw Rachel sitting on the porch, he jumped in surprise.
"Good heavens, I didn't see you there!" he exclaimed. With a joking smile on his face, he added, "What are you doing up at four in the morning anyway? Planning to best me at my career?"
"Oh, you caught me, Dad," Rachel replied sarcastically.
He smiled. "Now, why are you really up at four in the morning?"
"I just woke up early," Rachel replied.
"Rach, you can't get away with that," her father replied. "You are exactly like your mother: a perfectly peaceful sleeper, until the dragon is awoken. What's on your mind?"
Rachel sighed. She should've guessed that she couldn't get away with lying to her dad. "Just… stuff," Rachel answered quietly. "I've had a lot on my mind since school ended."
"Stuff?" her dad asked. "Not people?"
Rachel scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Come on, Dad."
"All right, I won't push the topic any further," he replied. Rachel nodded with a smile. Rachel's dad smiled back. "Don't throw any parties, okay?"
"No promises!" Rachel called as her father headed down the porch steps and into his car to head to work.
Sirius sat at his desk on the afternoon of July first pondering on who he should write to.
Writing to friends kept him fairly occupied and out of the way of his elitist pureblood family most of the time. He had already sent a letter to James, but it was mostly Quidditch talk and, well… girls, obviously. He had also sent letters to Remus to make sure he would be all right on his own for the upcoming full moon, and to Peter, asking him about what he was doing for the summer.
But it was only one in the afternoon and Sirius did not want to step outside of his room. Surely, someone else would come to mind.
And someone else did come to mind.
He leaned forward at his desk and neatly printed the start of his letter:
Dear Rachel,
Well, he definitely couldn't send that.
In all honesty, he didn't know what to write. He wasn't sure anything would cut it and she would probably throw it in the trash the moment she saw his handwriting. And she had all the right to do so. He had been an absolute prat to her. Sirius himself didn't understand why he had turned her away like that. It was truly his loss.
And he couldn't take his actions back. Nevertheless, he found his quill meeting the slightly crumpled parchment.
Dear Rachel,
I'm sorry. I am an idiot.
Sirius stared at his progress. "I guess I'm also quite illiterate," Sirius mumbled to himself. He had to come up with something more. Maybe something poetic. Did Rachel like poetic things?
He threw his quill on his desk and sat back in his chair with his arms crossed. Why did he care, anyway? It was just some bird, for Merlin's sake! Why did she matter so much to him?
After a few minutes of self-fuming, he was about to pick up his quill and attempt to write something better, but a loud, thunderous knock at his door interrupted him. He hadn't gotten a chance to ask who it was when his father barged in.
At least he knocked. That was noticeable progress.
"Busy sending letters to your blood traitor friends?" his father sneered.
"I actually did that this morning and was thinking of something I could do with my time that didn't involve my discriminatory family, since you're so interested," Sirius replied smartly.
The elder Black lunged forward and grabbed his son's shirt collar. "Don't get smart with me," he hissed. "We need to talk about your school year."
"It was rather uneventful, if you must know, but hey!" Sirius began. "Look on the bright side: I got an O in Care of Magical Creatures!"
His father's angry glare was piercing and obvious and Sirius felt his grip on his shirt get tighter. "How astounding," Orion drawled. His father stepped back suddenly and stood tall just a few feet away from where Sirius was sitting.
"Yes, well, Potions didn't go as I planned," Sirius continued. "I got an A. But I think that was because Slughorn felt sorry for me."
Orion narrowed his eyes at his son. "Seventeen years I have had to deal with your nonsense and ridiculousness," Orion began distastefully. "Every year I had high hopes for you and every year you disappointed me more greatly than the last. But you have really outdone yourself this time and I am ashamed to call you my son."
"Well, Merlin, I'll try and get an E next year," Sirius replied. "I didn't know that Po—"
His father's fist slammed down on his desk loudly and his face came right up to Sirius. "This is not about your bloody marks, you disgraceful being!"
Sirius felt a surge of anger as he stood up, sending his chair flying backwards. "Well, sorry for not being able to read your bloody mind!" he retorted angrily.
Orion pushed his son against a wall harshly, holding him there so he couldn't move. Sirius struggled under his father's strong grip. "You dare even speak to me after you did something so… so… unspeakable."
"What? What did I do this time?" Sirius shouted back, his face red with anger. "Was I too nice to the trolley lady on the train? Did Regulus tell you that I nicked his broom during finals? Well that's too bloody bad!"
"You fraternized with that filth!" Orion shouted in his face, the level of his voice going well above Sirius'.
Confusion clouded Sirius' face. "What?"
"That mudblood filth, how dare you!"
Realization suddenly struck Sirius and something inside him gave him the power to push his father and make him stumble backwards, almost falling over. "She's not filth," Sirius seethed.
"Oh, and you have feelings for her," Orion drawled. "How disgusting. I think I preferred it when you had your way with them."
"Well next time maybe I'll go off with my own cousin and we'll have children with three arms each!" Sirius shouted at his father.
"At least they'll be pureblood!"
"You are the disgusting one."
Sirius suddenly felt a sharp, searing pain on his face as he fell to the floor of his bedroom, his head taking most of the hit. He winced as his vision blurred and a sharp pain attacked his temple.
"You are no son of mine."
Sirius felt a kick in his gut that made him feel sick. He clutched his sides in pain as he coughed.
"You're weak."
This time, Sirius managed to roll away from the kick and stand up with the help of his bedpost. The anger displayed on his father's face was not only evident but also fearful. Sirius tried to hold his gaze without any fear.
"If you truly feel that way, I'll gladly leave," Sirius muttered quietly, distaste in his tone.
"That would be for the best, wouldn't it?"
Sirius turned around and swept a remainder of things in his trunk. He shut it closed and briskly walked out of the room past his father. He rolled his trunk down the stairs as quickly as he could. At the bottom, Regulus was standing there with a pleased smirk on his face.
"Are you happy now?" Sirius snapped. "Your blood traitor brother is gone; Malfoy and Nott will no longer make fun of you! You can be a true minion."
"Sirius!" his mother's stern voice was heard not far behind him, but he didn't turn to confront her.
"I am quite pleased with the situation, actually," Regulus replied quietly.
"How did you find out anyway?" Sirius hissed.
"You should take your slags somewhere more private," Regulus replied.
"She's not a slag," Sirius's reply came out sharp and threatening.
"Well, it sure looked like that," Regulus replied with a smirk.
Sirius reached for his wand, but his father's voice stopped him, "Don't you dare hurt your family, you disgraceful son. You don't deserve the name of Black!"
"Good!" Sirius shouted at his father. "I don't want it! I wish I could get rid of it! I wish I was never born into this family! It's so twisted and wrong and I hate everything that comes with that name!"
"You don't mean that!" his mother gasped angrily.
"I do!" Sirius shouted. "You don't know how much I mean it!"
"And where are you going to go?" Orion's loud, booming voice interrupted. "To your blood traitor friends? They don't even like you. They fell the same way about the name of Black."
Sirius held his father's gaze for a silent moment before turning around and walking for the door.
"Perfect! Leave!" he heard his father behind him. "Good riddance!"
And Sirius slammed that dreaded door of number twelve Grimmauld Place behind him.
Well, that's that :)
-What could Amelia possibly add on to this story line?
-Grammar/spelling?
-Was the whole family thing to intense? Unrealistic?
Merci pour lire! :)
