QLFC: Season 11, Round 3

Team: Kenmare Kestrels

Position: Chaser 1, Captain

Prompt: Write about the patriarch of a family

Additional Prompts:

[word] worship

[setting] starry night

[word] notorious

Word Count: 1033

Warnings: anti-muggle sentiments, mild swearing (use of the f word and the bs word)

Notes:


Orion didn't understand where he went wrong. He had done his best to raise his sons the way his father had raised him, and now? It was all a disaster. He leaned forward against the railing of the small fish pond that served as a centerpiece of the small back garden of number twelve Grimmauld Place. Five small koi fish swam lazily around, hardly causing a ripple on the surface, but it wasn't them that Orion was looking at. It had taken his father a week to perfect the charms around the garden to block out the disgusting light of the Muggles. When he had passed it had taken Orion even longer to redo them.

No, Orion wasn't looking at the fish. He was looking at the stars.

How had he failed so completely? He could still remember when Sirius was a little boy. Before he had gone to Hogwarts, before they had any indication that he was falling away from their pure heritage. He had loved Sirius more than he ever would have thought possible. And Sirius? He had worshiped Orion in the way all little boys should worship their father. Orion could still remember standing by this very pond with him when he had finally gotten the charms to work.

"Do you see that, Sirius?" Orion said, pointing at a star shining brightly in the fish pond. "That's your star."

"My star?" Sirius whispered, leaning so far out over the railing that he almost blocked the star's reflection from reaching the water.

"Yes, the one you're named after." He pointed towards the constellation orion in the water. "And that is my constellation, the one I'm named after. Do you know why I named you Sirius?"

Sirius shook his head, looking up at Orion with wide eyes.

"Because in the sky Sirius follows Orion everywhere he goes, just like you must follow me in everything I do."

Sirius had agreed. Orion knew now that whatever reverence the boy had given him had quickly died out. Somehow Orion had failed where none of his fathers ever had. He had raised a Gryffindor.

The Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was notorious for their purity. Just like the stars were pinpricks of light in an otherwise darkened sky, the Blacks were pinpricks of purity in an otherwise disgusting world. Their reputation was known by everyone in the wizarding world, and their image was judged by all. It had been Orion's responsibility to maintain that image, whatever the cost.

The stars in the pond seemed to stare up at him accusingly. Somewhere out there Sirius was running around with half bloods and blood traitors, and the filth they associated with. Orion had tried to stop him. Tried and failed.

"Why the fuck would I care?" SIrius asked, throwing a stone in the fish pond, causing ripples to break its perfect reflection of the starlight.

"I will not have that kind of language in my house," Orion said. "But to answer your question. You should care because consorting with those sorts of people puts a stain on the reputation of our family."

Sirius looked at him like he was stupid. "Do I really have to repeat myself? Why the f…"

"That is enough, Sirius!" Orion shouted. "You are my eldest son. One day I will be dead, and the responsibility for this family will rest on your shoulders! You cannot wait till then to try and understand the importance of that responsibility."

Sirius wasn't listening, but Orion didn't care. Maybe if he spoke loud enough he could break through the filth that the Potters' boy had coated Sirius in.

"Keeping the bloodline pure and raising you and your brother to continue the family legacy is the most important work I will ever accomplish. It weighs on my mind night and day, and someday, Sirius, you will look at these stars," he motioned at the now still water, "and you will understand the pressure of holding them on your shoulders."

"If it's so much pressure, then why don't you just give up? It's all bullshit anyway."

Orion wouldn't say he was proud of his actions that night, but they had been effective, at least for a little while. Sirius hadn't acted up all the rest of that summer, or the next Christmas. It hadn't stuck for good, though. Nothing ever did.

He wasn't proud of his actions that night, and he wasn't proud of his actions tonight. But they were necessary. He had asked his father once when he was very young about the black marks on the family tapestry. His father had explained that they were a shame, but necessary. Sometimes fire was the only thing that could clean filth. Fire burned, yes, but it also cleansed; it purified.

There were stories that thousands of years ago, to test the purity of a wizard's blood, they would be cast into a fire. If they burned, they were impure, if the flames didn't touch them without them performing any type of magic, they were pure. The wizarding world had no need for such rituals now. They knew whose blood was pure, and whose wasn't, and the Noble and Most Ancient House of Black was the most pure of all. It had pained Orion to burn Sirius off the tapestry, but that was the price of purity. It didn't matter that he still remembered the way Sirius had once looked at him with wonder and awe as if he were one of the gods that Muggles so foolishly dedicated their lives to. It didn't matter that Sirius was supposed to be his heir. All that mattered was his purity. The family's purity. That was Orion's responsibility, not Sirius.

He looked down at the stars once again. Arcturus seemed to stare up at him from beyond the grave, a burning reminder of all he had tried to emulate. A reminder of the harsh reality that Orion had failed to raise Sirius as he should have. But perhaps, Orion thought to Arcturus, perhaps I didn't fail.

Perhaps Sirius had failed to be everything Orion needed, but all was not lost. Sirius had failed, so Regulus would have to succeed.