Rough Waters |Sirius Black

Chapter Twenty Eight

The Black family definitely knew how to put the "grim" in the Grimmauld Place. Upon their arrival, Nixie could feel her entire mood change just by looking around the dreary home. Peeking out of the corner of her eye, she could see the permanent frown that was etched on Sirius' face as he only stood in the doorway of the home, not even fully inside yet. He appeared traumatized and Nixie could see every haunting memory of the home washing over him in a matter of seconds. Rather than letting him suffer through it, she stood in front of him and tried to block his focus.

Immediately, his eyes blinked several times before he looked down at her. He could see the worry on her face as well, making him frown.

"It's alright, Nini. This isn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. I mean...there's the bright side of it all."

"And that is?" Nixie asked.

"No one's home." he smiled.

Nixie suddenly jumped as the two heard muttering behind them. "Filthy half-breed in my mistress's home..."

"Ah right...I was hoping you were dead, Kreacher." Sirius muttered as the house-elf walked about in the room, eyeing them in disgust.

The house-elf sneered in Nixie's direction, however, Buckbeak who was growing very impatiently screeched loudly in Kreacher's direction frightening the little elf away.

She felt the warmth of Sirius' hand wrap around hers as he took the initiative and walked inside. Nixie had only been standing in the home for a few seconds  when she heard another screech.

"Merlin, Beaky, knock it off!" she whispered harshly at the Hippogriff.

"That wasn't Beaky, Nini." Sirius said.

Her eyes widened. "What?"

"FREAK!"

The two turned around to see the portrait of Sirius' late mother Walburga Black, glaring in their direction as they stood in the hallway of the home.

"Mother, it's always a pleasure to see you too." Sirius responded flatly as he sneered in the direction of the portrait.

"Oh barnacles..." Nixie shook her head as she sighed. 

"Offspring of filth!" Walburga yelled at her.

"Is she always this sweet or is she just being extra affectionate because I'm her daughter-in-law?"

Walburga spit every nasty phrase she could at Nixie while Sirius tried to pull his wife away from the portrait of his horrid mother, but Nixie wasn't about to back down to a painting.

"Would a hug make you feel better, Wally?" Nixie smiled at her. "I bet it would. How's about a big old friendly mermaid hug? I'll thrown in a much needed kiss too."

Before Walburga could retaliate, Sirius returned trying to remove the painting from the wall, but it was no use. Rather than listening to his mother's insulting words, he grabbed an old blanket and threw it over the painting.

"The blood traitor dare covers up Mistress in her own home!" Kreacher returned but quickly scurried off as Sirius threatened to kick him.

"Okay, okay..." Nixie pulled Sirius away from his mother's portrait and away from Kreacher, leaving him in the center of the room. "It's okay, you need to relax."

"I can't have you stay here, Nixie." He shook his head. "I can't have to stay here and be subjected to all of this...it's not fair to you."

Nixie's hands reached out and cupped the sides of his face to keep him still. "Sirius, I have grown up with name-calling and I let it stop bothering me back when I was in Hogwarts. There is nothing that your mother or Kreacher can say that I haven't heard already or a very close variation of. It doesn't bother me anymore."

"It bothers me, though!" Sirius growled in the direction of the hallway. 'They shouldn't be saying those things...all this about blood and-"

"Sirius, we don't have to stay here if it bothers you that much." Nixie urged him, hoping he would reconsider.

"No..." Sirius said placing his hands over hers. "Dumbledore needs us...Harry needs us..it's only for a short while...right?"

She offered him a reassuring smile as his eyes met hers and nodded her head. Pulling him into a hug, she attempted to comfort him in any way she could.

The house was covered in never ending dust and it was infested with Doxies and probably loads of other things that Nixie was going to find during her cleaning. It was the only thing that could keep her mind off the excessive yelling of Walburga downstairs. Sirius was just down the hall helping Buckbeak adjust to his new room while she attempted to clean out another room. She had her wand ready to knockback any doxy that came flying at her, not in the mood to be bitten by the annoying biting fairies.

She was about to pull out what appeared to be a box under her bed when something fell out.

Sirius was trying to convince Buckbeak that his new room was a good room, but the hippogriff did not seem convinced.

"Listen you...I am not spending all day trying to convince you...look you have a nice bed and-"

Suddenly, the two males heard Nixie's scream from down the hall.