Some Day | Wolfstar

Seventy - part three

(9 years old)

Orion placed a gentle hand on Walburga's shoulder, snapping her out of her thoughts. She turned away from the window, her eyebrows still weighed down with pain. "I don't know how to keep him in line anymore, Orion," she said softly, her voice lilting like the distant sea. He embraced her, letting her worries seep into his own skin.

"He keeps talking back to me, raising his voice at me, as if I'm a horrible nightmare," she cried into his shoulder. Orion stroked her back. "How did he turn out like this?" he frowned, looking at the moon, suspended far away in the depths of the night.

"I don't know," she whispered. "I don't know what I've done wrong. I had so much of hope for him," she pulled away from him, angrily wiping her tears away.

"I'll talk to him," Orion said. Walburga didn't respond. "Where is he?" Orion asked her. "I sent him to the Dark Room."

Orion left her to find Sirius. He climbed the flight of stone stairs down to what they called the Dark Room, and lit the chandelier with his wand. It had no windows to let any natural light in.

"Father?" Sirius scrambled to his feet. He had been crying, his pale cheeks glistening with tears and his voice scratchy.

"Your mother talked to me," Orion said calmly. Sirius looked hurt. "She's been trying so hard to educate you, and is this how you behave? Defending those repulsive Mudbloods? Taking their side over ours? Are they more important to you than your family? Your parents? Your mother, who loves you so much?"

Sirius looked up at him, fresh tears falling down his face again. Orion wanted to look away.

"But father-"

"No, Sirius!" Orion raised his voice. Sirius flinched. "How dare you disrespect your mother like this? Talking back to her? Who gave you the strength to do that?"

"I didn't do anything!" Sirius wiped his tears away just as angrily as Walburga had moments ago. "I didn't do anything," he repeated softly. "I'm sorry I don't believe that we should hate people just because they're born different from us."

Orion walked over to him slowly. Sirius sought in his closed fists the strength to keep standing. He swallowed thickly when Orion roughly grabbed his chin. "Born different? They sully our magic with their weak, mundane children. How-"

Sirius frowned. "But they're not doing anything wrong," he whispered. Orion tried to subdue him with a glare. He didn't want to lose his temper. Not with his Sirius.

"I am asking you this very calmly, Sirius, for the last time. Do you choose that filth over your own family?"

Sirius stared back with defiant eyes. "I will never hurt them just for being different from us."

Orion raised his hand, and slapped Sirius across the face as hard as he could. Sirius gasped, his small legs stumbling backwards. He cradled his burning cheek with his hand. "I asked you a simple question," Orion growled. "Let me make it simpler for you, Sirius. Them or us?"

Sirius looked at him, broken and afraid. "Father, I-" Orion hit him again. Sirius let out a pitiful whimper. "I'm sorry," he sobbed. "Please, father."

"You can call me that when you change your mind," Orion stepped back. "What a disgrace... I had such high hopes for you, Sirius."

He didn't forget to put the chandelier out before he left, immersing Sirius in the darkness. Sirius curled up into a ball and sobbed into the cold stone floor, with nothing there to keep him company but the burning ache in his heart.