epiphanies - sirius black

chapter 8

Maggie tried to prolong the encounter by ever so slowly making her way down the trains corridors. But as she scuffed her feet along the floor, she found herself being caught up in a crowd of students, all eager to get of the train and meet their families, unlike her.

She tried to resist the push of the crowd, but she simply couldn't, and before she knew it she had been forced out onto the platform.

She twiddled her fingers nervously, as she scanned the station, trying to find some sign of her father.

He had always collected her, every year. It was a common procedure amongst pure blooded families that fathers would escort their daughters to the platform until they were of age. Maggie figured it was a way of presenting your children into society, kind of a status thing.

She flickered her searching eyes past welcoming, and warm families, all greeting their children with hugs and kind words. Quite the opposite of what was awaiting Maggie.

She was standing, awkwardly searching, for a good few minutes before she saw him. He was a tall, stern looking man. His chin stuck up in the air, bursting with arrogance, and his arms clamped tightly to his side. On his face he bore a sickening scowl, it was intimidatingly horrific, and it made Maggie's skin crawl.

After taking a courages breath, she slowly edged her way over to her father, her hands subtly shaking, knowing the inevitable wrath was coming.

Once she reached him she kept her gaze from his. She couldn't bare to look him in the eyes. She just couldn't.

"Margret" he spat, his voice was thick, and gravely.

"Father" she said, still fearing to meet his eyes.

"We have a lot to discuss" He said bitterly, his fists clenching from frustration.

Maggie nodded in agreement, her nerves rising at the thought of the conversation ahead, though she knew there wouldn't be much talking going on.

Her father held out his arm for her to grab, so he could aperate them home, but just before she accepted, she heard his laugh, and her head instantly shot around.

Sirius.

He was laughing whilst hugging who she assumed to be James' parents. They greeted him just as they did James, as if he too was their son, embracing him with warmth and kindness, everything she had ever dreamed of.

It made Maggie smile, seeing that he was happy, that he had escaped the eternal tourment of his family that she was still forced to endure.

She continued to gaze at him, and for a split second his eyes met hers.

"Margret" her father spat, causing their gaze too be broken. She swiftly grabbed her fathers arm, not wanting to anger him any further, and just like that, they had aparated, and she found herself standing in her living room.

The house itself felt eerie, and forgotten.

It had never really been a home, just a house that she happened to live in. Because, as Maggie had discovered through her many years of secretive reading, a home wasn't a place, it was a feeling.

A feeling of love and warmth. A feeling of family and friendship. A feeling that Maggie was yet to experience.

She gazed round at the room, full of uncomfortable maroon furniture, stiff dark oak tables and the enclosing teal wallpaper.

Maggie had never liked her house.

She had only been standing there a split second before she felt herself being dragged across the room by her fathers firm grip.

She could feel his nails piercing her skin as he pulled her through too his office.

She knew that his civilities at the station had only been so not to cause a scene. But they were in private now, meaning he didn't have to put up a front anymore, he didn't have to pretend, or hold back, and he wouldn't.

Once they reached the office he shoved her down onto the chair and slammed the door shut, placing a silencing curse on the room simultaneously.

He paced for a few moments, leaving anticipation, and tension that was rapidly growing in the open air, but just as she began to open her mouth and break the silence he stopped.

"I'm so sor-"

He twisted round, rage glaring in his eyes and cut her off with a clean and sharp slap around the face.

Maggie's eyes instantly stung with tears, and she could feel her cheek reddening with pain. But she didn't say a thing, as she tried to remain calm, she had of course known this was coming for weeks now, at least she had had time to prepare herself.

"Mudbloods?!" He spat.

"Father I-"

"Blood traitors?!!" He interrupted.

"I-it wasn't- I-"

He once again interrupted her with a strong slap on her cheek.

Though this time, Maggie felt one of his several rings catch on her skin, and upon inspecting the cut with her fingers, had discovered it had caused her to draw blood.

"You have disgraced the family, do you know that! Do you know how you have damaged your mother and I's reputations?! Let alone your sister's?!! How did you think this would fair for her?" His voice grew with disparity due to his ever increasing fit of rage.

"Father I wasn't thinking I-"

Another slap.

"No! That's just the thing, you weren't thinking were you?! You selfish bitch! Elizabeth would never have pulled a stunt like this if she were in your position. She would have honoured the family, taken pride in it, but you" he pointed his finger directly in her face as he loomed over her, "You chose to ruin us."

He scoffed before turning his back on Maggie. She was still shaking in horror, and she could feel her eye bruising up from the direct hits taken. Tears were silently falling down her cheek, and as they did, they stung the open wound, still bleeding, on the side of her face.

"I'm sorry Father" she managed to say between shaky breaths.

Without so much as turning his head he replied.

"Get out."

Maggie didn't need to be told twice, and just like that she ran out of the office, and sped up too her room.

Once she got there she shut the door behind her gently, as not to anger her father anymore, before locking it and crumbling onto her bed in a fit of tears.