Hogwarts; Hufflepuff Fight Club.

Choose your competitor; Sirius Black.

Hogwarts, Assignment 6, Hufflepuff

Subject/Task: Cosmology: Creation Myths - Theogony; Task #2: write about one of the blasted faces from the Black Family Tree

Word Count; 425

Sirius Black appeared to be the over-confident sixteen-year-old who waltzed around Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry as though he owned it. But that wasn't who the real Sirius was. He was traumatised.

After years and years of abuse, ridicule, and neglect, Sirius had taught himself to keep his feelings hidden. That had always worked out to be the best for his well-being. He didn't let anybody know if they've upset him, or annoyed him, or forgotten him.

Instead, he focused his energy on showing everybody that he was fine, that his past didn't affect him. It was rather easy seeing as most of the students didn't have an inkling that his childhood was anything less than perfect. The majority of them wouldn't even be aware that he had been disowned by his parents, that his face had been blasted from the family tree, and that he was living with James Potter.

No, they didn't know.

They didn't care.

So, Sirius didn't share.

However, there were times, such as today, where everything flooded to the forefront of his mind. There was nothing he could do. It's not like he could reveal this emotionally traumatised part of him to anybody; they just wouldn't understand. James knew the most of his past but was never truly able to understand, after all, his family loved him.

"James," Sirius announced, the second his best-friend came into sight. "Let's go do some target practice."

With a nod, James stood up and headed his way. "What kind?"

"Is Snivullus around here anyway?"

The both of them looked around the Hogwarts grounds but the Slytherin was nowhere in sight. He used to be James' victim of choice, however, over the last year James had lost his interest. Lily was not longer with the sneeze ball and that affected the targeting.

Sirius felt the frustration fill him as he thought about every spell his parents had used against him. Even now he was surprised that they hadn't used any of the unforgivable curses; they weren't the kind of parents who were compassionate or cared about whether or not their child was hurt. Well, perhaps they cared about Regulus.

"This is stupid," Sirius uttered, pulled out his wand, and spent a hex towards the first Slytherin he saw. A year older than them both, but Sirius didn't care if he was more advanced. He needed a fight, anything, to distract him from feeling abandoned and neglected by his family. Forgotten by Regulus. He wasn't a Black anymore. And he never would be one again.