Breaking Black (A Sirius Black Love Story)

Chapter 18

"Oi, Sirius!" James shouted across the breakfast table after getting his daily copy of the Daily Prophet. "You know this chick?"

James held out the front page of the paper where a woman with dark, curly hair and an angry expression was pictured. She sneered in her frame, giving the illusion of someone above everyone else. I read the caption out loud.

"Wanted for questioning: Bellatrix Black-Lestrange. Report any information to the Department of Magical Law Enforcement immediately," I read and looked up at Sirius, who snatched the paper out of my hands.

"She's my cousin," Sirius grumbled before crumpling the front page, much to James' protest. Although she was family, you could tell there was no love between them. "You see over there? That's my cousin Narcissa Black, Bellatrix's little sister."

Sirius pointed to a pale sixth year Slytherin girl with long blonde hair. There was no similarity to Sirius except for the last name.

"Why do you think they want to question her?" I asked quietly. Sirius seemed to squirm at my question and motioned for James, Remus, and Peter to lean closer, so he could whisper to us.

"Look, I've heard rumors from my parents, things I'm not supposed to hear..." Sirius whispered as we huddled around him. "Bellatrix and her husband... They may be working for You-Know-Who."

"Y-You-Know-W-Who?!" Peter stuttered and looked like he was about to pass out in fear.

"Yep, wouldn't be surprised if they're Death Eaters!" Sirius whispered, nearly scaring Peter into fainting. 'You-Know-Who' and 'Death Eaters' were things we heard about in passing older witches and wizards, but it was mostly hushed up. But we weren't stupid. We knew something bad was going on, war was brewing and You-Know-Who was the cause of it. My mum was always hiding the newspaper from me as if she wanted to keep me sheltered.

"What about your family?" I asked timidly, remembering the things mum said about Sirius' family and the rude Walburga Black.

"My mum and dad?" Sirius turned to me, eyes gleaming with amusement. "They're harmless. Might spit nasty words about Muggle-borns and have some dark artifacts around the house... But they aren't Death Eaters. You should hear how they praise everything You-Know-Who's done, though. The one you've got to look out for is my brother Reg."

"Regulus?!" Remus asked in surprise. "We met him this summer, he doesn't seem too bad!"

"You don't know him like I do," Sirius said darkly. "Always supporting my mum's crazy ideas about disowning people and wanting to rid the world of Muggle-borns... Laughed when my favorite cousin Andromeda was burned off the family tree just because she married a Muggle-born. Regulus practically spent the entire summer in Borgin and Burkes!"

"That Dark Magic shop?" James whispered and looked over his shoulder at young Regulus who was chatting amiably with Snape.

"Yup. I even caught him cutting out articles about Death Eaters and hanging them on his walls." Sirius nodded and backed out of the huddle, signifying he was done talking about gloomy things. Focusing back on my plate of eggs, I added one final comment on the subject.

"Sounds like you're the normal one of the family," I joked.

"Might be normal, but my family considers me the oddball. After all, I was the only Black sorted into Gryffindor..." Sirius mumbled as he shoved a piece of bacon into his mouth.

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After that morning at breakfast, nobody brought up the war again. That was fine by me, I'd rather not be depressed as school began to pick up. Although it was only the second week, I was up at ten o'clock in the common room with Lily, working on the stacks of homework we had to do.