𝐓𝐫𝐨𝐮𝐯𝐚𝐢𝐥𝐥𝐞 - 𝐉𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐬 𝐏𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫

29 - 𝙝𝙚𝙡𝙡.

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This year was a disaster.

When the three Black siblings had returned home after not attending the Christmas Black Ball, their mother had been in a rage. But then again, Walburga Black was never one to scream to display her unhappiness with any situation. She was rather content watching her children grow restless as she nonchalantly stirred her tea with an atrociously bright silver spoon. Sirius had taken to repeatedly nudging his father, who looked at him, as helpless as everyone else in the room, waiting for Walburga to pick up her butter knife and slit all their throats.

It certainly wasn't what was about to happen, but it was more satisfying than the eggshell silence that enveloped the room right now.

"Walburga, darling," Orion began. Walburga looked up at him, and he swallowed. "Fancy some sugar?"

Walburga tapped the spoon definitively against the rim of the cup and set it down with a thud. "So many years of marriage, and yet you don't know how I take my tea. Disappointing, isn't it, Sirius?"

Sirius sat up straighter, if possible, and responded with a crisp nod. "Indeed, mother."

This was not the time for mumsies. This was official business.

"How horrible it is when someone disappoints us. How does it feel, Regulus? Disappointment?" she continued, looking at Regulus straight in the eye. Regulus, to his credit, did not flinch and met her eye to eye.

"It feels horrible, mother."

Walburga smiled a slow smile, a cruel sort of smile. "And you, Aquila? Have any opinion on disappointment?"

"It is very disappointing, mother." Aquila said, not sassily. She spoke as if it was a fact (which it was) because she liked her head connected to her neck, thank you very much.

Walburga took a long, slurping sip of her tea. Aquila wanted to groan and tell her to get on with it already. Walburga was just enjoying watching them squirm.

The tea finished. The clock struck five. Kreacher appeared. Took away the tea tray. Walburga sat up. So did the others.

Thud.

She had embedded a knife in the table. From where she got the knife, nobody knew. No one flinched. They were well-trained. Walburga gave a maniacal grin, baring her teeth through her blood red lips. She looked the role of the mad Black matriarch who ate children who disobeyed orders.

"Why did you deem it unfit to come home for Christmas, children?" Walburga snarled with barely restrained rage. Regulus and Aquila looked at each other and immediately looked at Sirius. Sirius looked at them with a betrayed expression.

"There was some extra-curricular work Regulus and Aquila had with Professor Slughorn, and I figured what would I do at the Ball without them?" Sirius said charmingly.

Walburga raised her eyebrows. "Oh really, honey? Do you go to the loo alone, Sirius?"

Sirius, growing up with Walburga, was an expert in passive aggressive questions. "I do, mother. Fortunately I am talented enough to achieve that on my own." Orion let out something like whimper at the underlying sass in Sirius' tone.

Walburga bared her teeth once again. "Then why did you not come home for Christmas?"

"Maybe because you seem to have no backbone around Bellatrix! You pretend to not notice the bruises she leaves at the end of the Ball, every year since my first year. I'd rather prefer to sit alone in my dorm room for Christmas than come to this place for another year," he spat, and in a swish of his robes, he was running up the stairs.

Walburga clenched her jaw. Regulus and Aquila seemed just too shocked to say anything. Orion looked around the table.

"You are excused, children," Orion said softly, nudging Aquila to go check on Sirius. Aquila pulled at Regulus' arm and he stood up and followed Aquila to their brother's bedroom.

Sirius was frantically stuffing clothes in his trunk, his closet doors open and stuff spilling out of it. Aquila and Regulus looked at each other, alarmed. This was a new level of crazy, even for Sirius, which was saying a lot.

"Hey, what're you up to?" Regulus asked, stepping over things strewn across Sirius' floor.

"Packing my things. Stupid question, even for you," Sirius said, not stopping throwing stuff into his trunk.

"No, I meant, why?" Regulus corrected.

"You meant why are you up to? You don't make much sense," Sirius was breathing heavily now.

Regulus scowled. He opened his mouth to retort, or maybe tell Aquila to not bother with Sirius, when she shushed him. Sirius' breath had turned even more frantic and he was shaking quietly clutching his closet door.

"Siri?" Aquila asked tentatively, as if he was a wounded animal. Maybe he was.

Sirius let out a choked sound and sat on his bed, clutching his head. "What do you want, Aquila?"

"I want you to tell me why are you packing your things?"

"I can't live here anymore, I can't - I can't do this. They keep ignoring us when we're in trouble, and when we're not, they keep prodding us to do things their way. It's always no, Sirius, and listen to your cousin, Sirius. I know in that memory you showed that mother and father were standing up against Bellatrix, but they don't do it when it really matters! They just let Bellatrix step all over us, literally," Sirius had gotten up in the middle of his rant and was now continuing to throw clothes into his trunk.

Regulus reached over and held Sirius' wrists. "And where will you go, Siri?" he asked softly.

Sirius stopped in his motions, looking at Regulus with tear-stained eyes. "I don't know, Anywhere is better than here. I'll sleep on the Knight Bus, I'll go to the Leaky Cauldron, I don't care."

Aquila slowly picked up a piece of clothing from the ground and placed it inside the closet once again. "And you're planning to leave us here, then?" she asked. Sirius immediately shook his head vigorously.

"So don't go right now. We'll make a plan, we'll blow up Grimmauld Place, and we won't tell mother and father, and we'll run away. We'll plan something. Don't leave us here, brother," Aquila said, taking another piece of clothing from his bed and maintaining eye contact with him.

Sirius sniffled. "Yeah, alright. You might want to put down my dirty underwear though." Aquila squealed and threw away the now known underwear in her hands and it landed on Regulus who let out a shriek and threw it away.

Orion stood on top of the staircase, listening to his children's laughter and tracked the sock that came flying out of the room. Everything was alright, but for how long?      

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me? ignoring james' confession? haha, i dont know what you're talking about?

*laughs nervously*

༻hy༺