"This is cannot be happening." Sirius muttered and closed his eyes so he wouldn't have to look at the cat or the bat. The last time he had said this was when he was fifteen years old and his Mother had made him spend the day with Bellatrix when she had come to visit.
"She'll make you a fine wife." His Mother had said.
The then fifteen-year-old Sirius had gagged. "But we're cousins!" he'd said, appalled at even the thought. "Besides, she's way too old for me." He added as an after thought.
Mrs. Black stared at her son hard and Sirius stared back knowing very well that in her mind she was cursing his existence. "It is not uncommon for cousins to wed in our family." She said contemptuously. "It's how we keep our blood pure."
"Ri-ght." To him it still sounded wrong but the serious tone with which she had delivered her words told him all hell would break out loose if he were to voice his objection and he wasn't quite in the mood for one of those murderous arguments.
"Since you're so useless at making our family proud the least you can do is make a decent marriage and produce an heir to be brought up properly like a true Black." She hissed under her breath.
About a minute passed in which his Mother's resentment grew and Sirius knew that hell was about to come his way anyway so he took a deep sigh and prepared himself.
"You should learn from your brother. He has his heart in the right place."
That's certainly a new way you could put it. Sirius thought although he didn't say it aloud.
"He doesn't spend time with filthy half-breeds, traitorous Muggle lovers or dog filth neither. He thinks about more than himself. He's considerate enough to think about the family honor. He would do nothing to taint our name, but you! You…" she said shrilly before her voice dropped to a growl.
Unable to stop himself Sirius had snapped back. "They're not half-breeds or dog filth! I hang around with them because they are my friends! And don't you insult them because they're worth more than your bloody precious Noble and most sodding Ancient pure blood crap."
Mrs. Black's eyes narrowed. She appeared to suck in a lung full of air before she exploded. "I'M WARNING YOU SIRIUS! DON'T YOU DARE DISHONOR YOUR FAMILY NAME! IF THE OLD LAWS WERE STILL IN PLACE I WOULD HAVE STRUNG YOU UP BY THE NECK MYSELF AND LEFT YOU TO ROT IN THE CELLER! IF I COULD RID YOU FROM THE FAMILY DON'T THINK I WOULDN'T!"
"Please do! I wouldn't mind ridding myself of the name Black neither!" Thoroughly irritated Sirius stormed off only to be disturbed just minutes later by none other than Bellatrix. Despite being a few years older Bellatrix had not failed to notice her extremely good looking younger cousin.
"My dear cousin." She said airily that made him cringe. She was tall, almost his height (although he was already tall for his age) with dark hair and heavy lidded eyes that she smothered with make up.
Sirius had taken a notice to girls from a young age and she was by no means ugly by any standard, but she was his cousin and he definitely wasn't a fanatic about marrying someone he was related to. Besides, there was something deeply unsettling under her lashes, something that he could almost describe as snake-ish; a cold blooded-ness Sirius knew he would never grow to love. His brother on the hand loved all forms of cold-blooded creatures, and Sirius had long suspected that he'd had a crush on dear Bellatrix for a long while. Knowing this very well he'd deliberately led her to his brother and had used the opportunity to rid himself of her company for the day. Unfortunately for Regulus and Mrs. Black, Bellatrix wasn't as captivated with Regulus as she was with Sirius and two visits later she stopped visiting entirely.
And that! Was the last time Sirius had seen her before he moved out.
"Most interesting." Sirius looked down to see Nutmeg with his paw resting on his leg.
"Get off." Sirius pulled his leg away and sat up straight. A large squashy beanbag appeared beside him and he shuffled onto it marveling at the efficiency of the Room of Requirement. "What was interesting?" he added moodily.
"The Mongrel is intelligent enough to have memories. Are you a descendent of Phineas Nigellus?"
"What! Have you been snooping on my thoughts!" Sirius demanded. The cat was reading his thoughts! He thought with a little panic.
"Answer the question Mongrel, it's not hard." Nutmeg said with disinterest.
Sirius rarely talked or shared memories of his family, even to his best friends he never said more than was needed to convey the type of household he was brought up in and now this cat had invaded his privacy just like that, now that just took the biscuit. "Why you big f-"
His insult was cut off short when Remus' alarmed voice rose above it. "I think I've found a sneak."
"What?" Sirius stood up swiftly resisting the urge to give the cat a good kick as he went to join Remus who was hunched over the map.
"Look," he said pointing out a moving dot to Sirius. The dot was labeled Rodolphus Lestrange and it was walking up a corridor that would only lead to the Owlery. "Bit of a strange time to be out posting don't you think."
Sirius narrowed his eyes at the dot. "I knew he wouldn't be able to take it. How can he resist the opportunity to get James in trouble?"
"Although I wonder why he's waited this long?"
"I don't know, maybe he couldn't spell 'James'." Sirius flicked a bit of hair out of his eye as some of his old mischief restored itself. Lestrange wasn't too bright when it came to the average day to day chores but when it came to Dark Arts he was as sharp as an arrow. He rolled the map up and shoved it into his pocket. "I rekon we should go say 'hello'." And he flashed a rakish smile at nothing in particular at the thought of a confrontation; maybe he was affected by his recent reminiscence? He wasn't sure but he did know that he definitely wasn't a cold-blooded, pure blood obsessed maniac like the rest of his family. Still, that didn't stop him from condemning them as they had to him…
-
Remus followed closely behind Sirius as they practically ran to the owlery. His friend was worked up. Driven to be precise. Many a times he'd witnessed it but he could not for the life of him figure out what had triggered it off this time.
He's just itching to get involved. That was the way Sirius was; deep down he was unsettled, impatient that James was getting all the action. To be sure their friend was in danger but he was still involved. This inaction was killing Sirius who was not accustomed to sitting on his hands.
"He must be writing some long words." Sirius marveled. "He's still there!" They burst in through the door. A very surprised Lestrange jumped and the owl closest to him soared upwards, straight for the open window.
"Get him!" Remus had his wand out but Chewy was faster. The little bat shot up like a rocket and did his bat version of a rugby tackle. As a result the very surprised and disgruntled owl flapped his wings in a frenzy to release itself and began to fall as it lost its momentum. However, being considerably bigger than the bat, the owl swung his wing down hard and Chewy was flung clear away. Nutmeg tutted but was unable to help as the owl seized the opportunity to fly out while the bat recovered.
Having witnessed this Sirius whirled onto Lestrange. "I'd eat my wand if that was a letter to your Mother. Who are you grassing on?"
"What's it to you?" Lestrange brushed the front of his robes with a smirk. What happened next surprised everyone. Sirius was supposed to throw back a cutting insult of some sort but it seemed that he wasn't interested in a verbal argument that night. His hands shot out and grabbed the lapels of Lestrange's uniform.
"What-was-in-the-letter?" he demanded, throttling the Slytherin with each word. Nutmeg whooped with amusement whilst Remus stood with his jaw open.
"Get off!" the red faced Lestrange struggled but Sirius was having none of it.
"Answer the question Lefreak."
"Padfoot." Remus tried to get Sirius to release Lestrange. "You're gonna end up killing him."
"Don't touch me, dog filth!" Lestrange hissed. Sirius gave him a hearty throttle but it didn't cover his surprise. "That's right! Don't think that I don't know what you are!" Remus' jaw tightened.
"It was Snape. Loose mouthed little snake, he promised Dumbledore." Sirius hissed. Outside of the four and Lily, only Snape knew that Remus was a werewolf. "I regret letting Prongs save his ass. Get me a cupboard or something, Moony." The request baffled Remus.
"Why?"
"Because my hands are getting tired."
Chewy jumped to the opportunity. With a little bat magic a ward wardrobe appeared. Without any hesitation Sirius hefted Lestrange through the open doors and dumped him inside before slamming the door close.
"This is where the fun begins." Sirius grinned pushing his sleeves up. The cupboard shook on its iron-pegged legs as if it contained a boggart. Sirius poked the end of his wand through the keyhole and sent a stunner though. Inside Lestrange howled. A tickler went in next. "Having fun Lefreak?" Sirius called with glee. Even Nutmeg seemed to be enjoying this because he even suggested a few spells. However, Lestrange was as tight lipped as ever and not a word escaped his mouth.
"Stubborn fool." Sirius cursed, when he finally grew bored. "Oh well, we can always come back!" A decisive flick of his wand and the cupboard plus Lestrange vanished. "At least we won't be seeing him any time soon." He said to Remus with a shrug.
"But the owl got away."
Sirius nodded gravely but something appeared to have caught Remus attention and he followed his gaze to the door.
Regulas leant against the door casually, almost in a manner that reminded Remus of Sirius actually although Regulus did not have quite the same level of charm that his brother dripped effortlessly. Like his brother, he was also very striking in looks but yet again he was nowhere near as popular as Sirius. When in the two stood near enough together (for they would never be found standing side by side) there was no doubt that Sirius drew more attention be it from male or female.
Sirius was just a person that did not need to announce his presence; quite the opposite since his presence announced him.
Regulus was smiling slightly, an awful smile that Sirius also shared, although the latter readily turned it into a devastating charmer or a genuine grin.
"He'll turn up in a week or two." Sirius said heedless of the fact that Regulus had just seen him commit something that could get him suspended.
"Couldn't care less."
This surprised Sirius a little although he was careful not to show it. "How long have you been standing there?"
"Long enough to see you shove Lestrange into the cupboard and curse it. I've got to admit that even I enjoyed that. How did you get the cupboard up here anyway?"
Remus released a breath he'd been holding. At least Regulus hadn't seen Chewy cast magic, that would have brought up more problems.
"I'd love to tell you, but I don't feel like it." Sirius said flatly. "But I am curious of why you haven't run off telling on us yet."
Regulus laughed. "He going out with Bella you know?"
"Couldn't care less." He replied echoing his earlier reply.
Regulus' eyebrows drew close in a frown and when he next spoke his voice dripped with disdain. "That's right. I forgot how little you cared for the family. All you care about is yourself and mixed blood friends."
Remus might have been mistaken but he thought he could also hear a hint of bitterness in Regulus' words. Regulus hadn't been on particularly bad terms with Sirius; at least he'd never heard Sirius talk about anything bad happening between them. The only thing he'd really said was how soft Regulus was and how easily his Mother's warped ideals influenced him. But that delicate relationship had crumbled when Sirius had ran away when he was sixteen. Regulus at fifteen, effectively became an only son when he'd been brought up as part of two. And without his brother as a counter balance, his Mother's influence grew and so did his bitterness at being abandoned.
Remus looked over to his friend. Nothing ever really affected Sirius more than issues concerning his family and right now this was clearly evident as Sirius clenched his jaw. "You've been with that woman too long."
"That woman is your Mother!" Regulus pulled himself up straight with clenched fists.
"Yes, a Mother that wouldn't hesitate to strangle her own son!" Sirius threw back, his voice loud enough to unsettle the owls above once more.
"You make her- you upset her by your behavior!"
"And she doesn't upset me when she curses me and tells me she wished I had never been born?" Sirius ran a hand through his hair trying to look like he didn't care but it didn't fool anyone.
A few tense seconds passed as the two brothers locked into a stare. "You should see her now. See what you've done to her. She sits at home and mutters under her breath and all she ever talks about is your betrayal! She's going crazy because you left!" Regulus said accusingly.
"She was well on her way even when I was there!"
"SHUT UP!" Regulus thundered. The two stared at each other again for what seemed like an immeasurable length of time before Regulus spun on his heel and marched out.
-
A/N: Wow, wasn't it weird seeing Sirius all worked up as opposed to being all cool? I know in the books he's all detached about his family but I figured that that's only because he's had like a good sixteen years plus to get over it. But from his behavior with Harry whom he considers as family you could tell just how much family means to him. His were crap but that doesn't mean that he didn't have feelings for them and running away is bound to leave a bit of a sore patch for all of them, even his Mother in an odd way I guess.
