The Black Sheep

December 24, 1972- Prior Engagements

The three Black siblings all awoke on Christmas Eve with a sense of dread rather than one of joy. This was the day when their parents would become extra irritable as they prepared to open their home to various other pureblood families for their annual Christmas party. All that Rory could think about as she attempted to go back to sleep was the fact that her mother would be tearing apart every aspect of her appearance as she tried, and in her eyes failed, to make her daughter look even somewhat presentable. Little did Rory know, her mother would be extra concerned with her appearance today, and would soon be knocking on her bedroom door to wake her up and get to work.

Rory spent five hours in total attempting to get ready with her mother. First, she tried on approximately a thousand different dresses, with her mother offering harsh critiques of Rory's 'unpleasant figure' in between each one, before she was finally put into a green tea-length dress that her mother admitted didn't look horrible on her. Then there was her unruly hair, which after about an hour and a half of teasing, curling, spraying, and pinning her mother had finally managed to get into a curled updo. Finally, her mother spent another hour covering the young girl's face with makeup to make her presentable. As she looked at the daughter she had never asked for she felt an odd sense of pride, knowing that this young girl would someday carry on the pureblood legacy for another family.

"You look acceptable now Aurora. Please go ensure your brothers are ready and presentable, guests should begin arriving any moment."

Rory nodded her head silently and walked as quickly as she could away from her mother and towards Sirius' room where she knew the boys would be getting ready. Once she arrived she knocked firmly on the door before exclaiming "Make yourselves decent! I'm coming in and I don't want to see anything unsavory."

The door was then opened revealing Regulus, who was completely dressed and ready, and Sirius, who was standing in front of a mirror trying and failing to tie the bowtie he was supposed to be wearing. "Please stop joking around and help this idiot do his tie before he somehow manages to strangle himself with it," he said with an overdramatic lean on the doorway and the face to match.

"Hey! I am right here you know," Sirius shouted from his spot in front of the mirror causing Rory to roll her eyes as she crossed over to him.

"Do you want my help Siri, or are you going to be dramatic?"

"I'll take your help, but for the record, I would've figured it out myself eventually."

"Whatever you need to tell yourself Siri," Rory stated, rolling her eyes again at her brother's overdramatic attitude as she began to tie his tie for him.

"You look particularly fancy Rory," Reg said, crossing over to sit on the bed behind where his siblings were sitting, "any particular reason?"

"Not as far as I know, although who knows what kind of shenanigans our mother has up her sleeve for tonight. As far as I know, she could be planning on selling me off to the highest bidder." All three siblings laughed at the idea of their mother selling Rory as she finished tying the tie and then ushering her brothers downstairs to begin greeting guests as they arrived. Little did she know, she wasn't too far off with her comment.

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Rory quickly found herself pleasantly surprised at the number of her peers who had been invited to this year's party. The Rosiers had been on the list for as long as she could remember, but many of her other friend's families, such as the Averys, were new additions to her mother's list. As she now had people to talk to she was no longer forced to attempt conversation with Bellatrix, who was a good deal older than her, or Narcissa, who only wanted to talk of marriage prospects for herself despite Rory's young age, allowing her to begin to somewhat enjoy the evening for the first time in years without running off to cause some form of mischief with Siri and getting in a great deal of trouble because of it.

Even though Rory was on good terms with the girls her age, as they were roommates while at school, she was by far the closest with Thomas- whom she dubbed Tommy shortly after their friendship had begun, the pair loved to gossip with each other and often studied together at school. Gossiping was what the two were doing when Walburga and Fiona Avery approached the two.

"Aurora, this is Mrs. Avery," her mother said with a look on her face that acted as a sufficient deterrent for any shenanigans Rory could ever think of pulling.

"Nice to meet you, Mrs. Avery," she replied, shaking the woman's hand firmly.

"Well she certainly is pretty enough, and it seems like the two of them get on well enough. So long as our husbands agree, I would say we have a deal," The woman said curtly, practically ignoring Rory save for the critical look she had given as they shook hands. Before either Rory or Thomas could question what 'deal' their mothers were discussing the two women walked away, on a mission to find their husbands.

"What do you suppose that was about?" Thomas asked

"I have no clue. Hopefully, they'll leave us alone now though," Rory replied, laughing half-heartedly. Both sat in awkward silence for a moment, having an odd feeling about what their mothers could be up to, before tentatively returning to their previous conversation in a desperate attempt to forget the awkward encounter.

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"Can I have everyone's attention!" Orion's booming voice carried through the dining hall, instantly silencing the crowds as they all waited to hear what their host was going to announce. It had been a few hours since Rory's odd encounter with her mother and Mrs. Avery, and she had pretty much forgotten about it until the women had come to gather her, Thomas, and Regulus from their table and bring them up to the front of the hall. As Rory stood beside her family she reached for her brothers' hands to comfort her. She had a terrible feeling about whatever was happening that she couldn't shake, but holding their hands she felt stronger and more ready to face whatever craziness was about to happen.

"As I'm sure you are all aware, my lovely wife and I have three children- two sons and a daughter. After much deliberation, we are happy to announce the engagement of our daughter, Aurora, to Mr. Thomas Avery." Rory's eyes widened in shock as the crowd erupted into polite applause at this announcement. She looked to her left making eye contact with Thomas, who seemed equally shocked at their engagement. She knew that arranged marriages were common amongst pureblood families, but for her to be engaged so young was definitely out of the ordinary as Narcissa had just recently been engaged at 17 to Lucius Malfoy. "On Aurora's 18th birthday, the two will be wed cementing the union of the Black and Avery families for generations to come." A cheer erupted from the crowd, and everyone went back to their conversations unfazed by this engagement.

"Mum you can't be serious!" Sirius said in an angered tone.

"Oh, I'm very serious dear, and now that your sister is taken care of it should be high time for me to start looking for matches for you and your brother," Walburga sneered at her son before turning and walking away from her children, not even offering Rory a glance as she sauntered off. Sirius stormed away in the opposite direction shortly after, leaving Rory, Regulus, and Thomas together.

"You okay Ror?" Regulus asked, gently squeezing his sister's hand as he did so.

"Yeah, I'm fine," She replied. "At least Tommy and I get along well."

Thomas gave a halfhearted chuckle to this, before awkwardly walking back towards the table he had been sitting at before. Rory took a deep breath, steeling her nerves, before plastering a smile on her face and following her now fiancé to their friends.