Sirius was grinning madly as he raced up the stairs to his room. His tutor had told him at the end of his lessons that his parents had consented to hire another tutor to help Sirius improve his artistic skills. He was excited. Sirius had loved drawing and often practiced on scraps of paper that he found lying around or that Lucille gave him. Now he would have someone to properly teach him how to draw and sketch.

"Lucille." He called as he burst into his room.

Lucille wasn't there waiting for him as she usually was. Sirius frowned briefly before brightening as he realized that she was probably in her room reading. Lucille often lost track of time when she was reading, especially if it was a good book.

Sirius ran out of his room and went next door to Lucille's room. He knocked on the door, opening it a minute later when no answer came and froze.

The room was empty. Not empty as in there was no one in the room, though that was true. But empty as in the room was bare, lacking all of the personal things that had made the room Lucille's. The childish drawings Sirius had done when he was younger no longer hung on the walls, Lucille's favorite books that had lined her bookshelf, and the picture of Lucille wither her parents that had sat on her night stand. Lucille was gone and so was all of her stuff.

Sirius stood in the doorway for another minute before unfreezing and running back the way he had come. He passed the hall leading to Regulus' wing and continued into a part of the manor that he had only been to a few times before. Thought it had been a few years since Lucille had briefly explained to him what rooms were in his parents' wing, Sirius still remembered where the room he was looking for was.

In no time at all, he had reached his destination and had barged into his father's study without knocking. His father looked up from his papers and Sirius could see a hint of surprise in his eyes.

"Where's Lucille?" Sirius demanded.

"You nanny has been let go and has moved out of the manor.

"Why?"

Sirius thought he saw a mixture of amusement and pride flash across his father's face for a moment.

"Your mother and I have decided that some of the things she has been teaching you are not appropriate for the Black heir to be learning. We find it disgraceful that she has been filing your head with nonsense about treating everyone equally instead of according to their station."

"You don't know anything." Sirius shouted. "Lucille has been teaching me how to be a good head of the family."

He didn't give his father a chance to say anything else and ran from the room. Sirius didn't pay attention to where he was going, he just ran. When he stopped running, he found himself outside of the kitchen door. He pushed it open and slipped inside, keeping to the wall. He knew that lily was in here somewhere and hoped to find her before someone reported him to the head cook.

Luck was with him and he found Lily working at a table in the corner. She was covered in flour and shaping dough to be baked into loaves of bread. Sirius dragged a stool over to the opposite side of the table and climbed up.

"M…Master Sirius." Lily stammered, dropping her handful and causing a cloud of flour to blow up in the air and stick to part of their faces. "What brings you down here?"

"Lucille is gone." Sirius muttered sullenly.

The look on Lily's face softened. "I know. She came in here for a moment to say goodbye to some of the servants she has known for a while. She said goodbye to me." Lily said shyly, her face showing her pleasure at having an older, more important servant acknowledge her, even if it was just to say goodbye.

Sirius grew even more sullen at that admission. He had been the one to spend the most time with Lucille and she hadn't bothered to say goodbye to him.

"She didn't say goodbye to me." He grumbled.

Lily looked thoughtful as she gazed at him. She appeared to be considering something. Sirius didn't notice as he was too busy drawing patterns in the flour.

"Please don't do that Master Sirius." Lily said gently, moving his hand from the flour. "I need that flour for the bread."

Sirius sighed and let his hand drop to his side, not caring about the streak of white the flour left on his pants.

"I might be able to help you." Lily said, picking up a lump of dough to shape into bread. Sirius looked up, a small spark of interest in his eyes.

"I overheard Lucille telling another servant that she had found a house in the village. It was on the main road that leads to the market square."

"There are a lot of houses on that road." Sirius complained. "How am I supposed to find Lucille's house?"

Lily quietly shaped the dough as she tried to recall if Lucille had said something specific that would identify her house.

"I believe she said that her house was in the center of the neighborhood and that it had a small apple tree in the front yard." She said at last.

Sirius' face lit up with hope at that.

"Thank you, Lily." He said, hopping off the stool.

"It was my pleasure, master Sirius." Lily said as she briefly dropped her head respectfully.

Sirius left the kitchen and ran down the halls until he reached the front door. There he encountered his first problem. The front door was made out of heavy, solid wood. It wasn't easy for the seven year old to open it but he managed to open it just wide enough so that he could squeeze out. Getting to the gate was a challenge as the gardeners seemed to be everywhere. He had to dash from bush to tree for several minutes, often remaining hidden behind them as he waited for gardeners to pass and the way to the next hiding spot to clear.

After what seemed like an eternity to the young boy but was really only ten minutes he reached the front gate and slipped out behind a gardener carrying dead brush.

At last, he was out. Looking around briefly, Sirius confidently set off down the road to his left. He remembered that he and Lucille had gone this way the one time she took him to the market square. It had been almost a year ago but Sirius still remembered the way. He had wanted to go again but Lucille had said that they couldn't. A few minutes later he reached the end of the road and turned right towards the center of the village.

A few old women who were out tending to their gardens straightened up and waved at him as he walked by. Sirius flashed them a charming smile and waved back. The villagers he passed recognized him and gave him polite smiles or nods but didn't stop to say hello. Sirius didn't care. He was focused on finding Lucille's house.

Ten minutes later he reached the road leading to the market square. Sirius slowed down and began searching each front yard for the apple tree Lily had mentioned. Nearly halfway down the street, Sirius found a tidy looking house with a small apple tree in the front yard. He made his way up the path leading to the front door. He knocked on the door and then stood there, shifting awkwardly from foot to foot as he waited for someone to open the door. He didn't have to wait long. Barely a minute after he had knocked on the door it was opened and Sirius saw Lucille standing there.

"Sirius?" Lucille gasped in surprise.

Sirius grinned and threw himself at his nanny. Lucille managed to catch him even though she was still shocked.

"Sirius, what are you doing here?" Lucille asked.

"I wanted to see you." Sirius said. "But you left without saying goodbye." He stuck his bottom lip out in a pout.

Lucille softened at that. She never could remain angry with Sirius, especially over something as small as this. Besides, she had known that leaving without saying goodbye to Sirius wouldn't go over well with the boy but what Orion said went.

"Come in then." She said, stepping back to allow Sirius into the house.

Sirius grinned and bounded past her, looking at everything he could as he did so. Lucille chuckled as she shut the door and turned to follow the boy further into the house. She hurried to get ahead of Sirius and lead him into the kitchen. Sirius happily followed and clambered into one of the chairs while Lucille filled a plate with fresh baked cookies and retrieved two glasses of milk.

"Can't you come back?" Sirius asked, stuffing a cookie in his mouth.

Lucille smiled. "No, Sirius. Your father thinks it's time you learned how to do things on your own. He says you're too big for a nanny. Just remember what I've taught you and you'll be fine."

"I can't." Sirius complained.

"Why not?" Lucille asked, thinking Sirius was just playing.

"Father says you didn't teach me good stuff."

Lucille pursed her lips. She should have known that Orion wouldn't have liked some of the things she had taught his son. She could guess which things he didn't like. Things like treating everyone equally instead of according to their station. It showed how much Sirius trusted her and looked up to her that he came looking for her instead of obeying his father.

"Sirius."

Sirius looked up at his nanny. He recognized that tone. It was one Lucille used whenever she wanted him to listen closely to what she had to say.

"You're old enough now to decide who is right. If you think your father is right, then listen to him. If you think I'm right, then listen to me. But no matter who you think is right, you still need to obey your father. Just don't forget what you've learned."

Sirius nodded slowly. He was going to have to think about this. For the seven year old, he had no idea who he thought was right. Part of him wanted to choose his father and please the man. The other part of him wanted to choose Lucille, the one person who had always loved him and looked out for him.

"I'll think about it." He said.

Lucille smiled again. "That's fine. Now, finish your snack and then I'll take you back home."

AN: I am still alive. It's just been a crazy few weeks between finals review and end of the semester papers. I do plan on catching up on my updating, it will just take a few days.

While you're waiting for me to update, I strongly recommend you check out Ancient Ties by hato-ryou-chan. It's a new one and only has a few chapters, but it is very good. Another recommendation is Spectacular View by blackkisbackk. I'm sure you'll enjoy it as well.

I would love it if you guys would review. It would give me something to read in between finals this week and brighten my day. You guys have no idea how happy it makes me when I check my phone and see that my email shows a review from someone. Even if it is a guest review, I still love reading them.

Well, I've got to go study a bit. Until the next update.