Odessa {S.B}

CHAPTER XVII

CHAPTER XVII | Just Come Back to Me

"Mark my words, boy, if you leave this house tonight you are never welcome here again!" Walburga Black spat, chasing her eldest son up the steep staircase of Number 12 Grimmauld Place. "I will blast your name off the family tree forever!"

"Thank fuck!" Sirius laughed maniacally, struggling up to his room. "That'll be the first nice thing you ever do for me!"

Walburga let out a screech of frustration before hurrying downstairs to fulfil her promise.

Sirius slammed his bedroom door shut and grabbed the duffel bag he kept under his bed. He threw open his dresser drawers and wardrobe doors, taking armfuls of clothes and dumping them into the bag. He had to get out of there before his father returned; a few creased items of clothing were a small price to pay to keep his life.

The swollen black eyes that was already forming and tears of rage and sadness that fell from his eyes were beginning to blur his vision, only fuelling his exasperation. Sirius paused for a moment to hold in a sob and take a deep breath before continuing.

That morning, or afternoon as Sirius hadn't woken up until gone noon, Sirius went downstairs to find Kreacher frantically running about. The old house elf begrudgingly told Sirius that the household was expecting visitors.

"Master Sirius' cousin, Bellatrix, has become engaged to Mr. Lestrange," Kreacher croaked, clearly exceptionally pleased at the news. "Kreacher's mistress says they are coming for dinner, so Kreacher must make sure the house is spotless."

"And where are my family?" Sirius demanded.

Kreacher glared at Sirius. "My generous mistress and masters have gone to buy an engagement gift for the couple."

Sirius couldn't be bothered about his hateful and cruel cousin's engagement. He only hoped that Walburga would do what she usually did and forbid him from joining them to eat.

In the kitchen, The Daily Prophet sat atop the mahogany dining table. Sirius picked up the newspaper when he saw the headline was about another attack on a family where the so-called 'dark mark' had been left behind.

They had started that summer. Hate crimes against muggles, muggleborns and 'blood traitors' had steadily been on the rise for the last few years, but the first attack that left the dark mark was in late June, in which a young muggleborn couple and their newborn baby were killed when their house was set alight as they slept. The media was saying that the dark mark was the sign of the evil wizard being followed by the rising death eaters. It made Sirius feel sick, and it made him feel frightened.

This time it seemed as though the assault had been on another wizarding family who, like the Potters, could have been members of the sacred twenty-eight but had been marrying muggles and muggleborns for generations. This, to the death eaters, was abominable and destroyed the bloodline.

For confidentiality and respect for the family involved, the names of the victims had been omitted from the article, but it panicked Sirius when he read that the son was a student going into his sixth year at Hogwarts. His heart skipped a beat when he thought of the possibility that the article was talking about the Potters, but Sirius quickly remembered that he had spoken to James through the mirror in the early hours of that morning when he'd awoken from a nightmare.

It could have been Peter, Sirius thought. No, Mrs. Potter works at St. Mungos and she would know if it was, and she would tell James and James would have told me.

The only consolation was that, although injured, no one had been killed. Whilst Sirius was still curious and concerned to find out who the victim was, the whole thing seemed a lot less urgent.