Chapter 1
An old woman sat down next to a man at the bus stop.
“Sirius Black, is it?”
The man jumped slightly, wisps of his dark hair with him.
“That depends.” He responded with a practiced calm.
The old woman chuckled and admired him for a minute.
“I knew your mother.”
“My mother?”
“Yes,” The woman paused. “She was so lovely when she was little. Walburga always had a joke to throw out or some comforting words. She used to laugh, you know. She had such a beautiful laugh,” The old woman had a sad smile. “That was until she married Orion and suddenly she was the front of an empire, a legacy. After that, well, nothing was really funny anymore.”
The bus rolled in and Sirius looked up at it. They both stared at the bus in silence, as it slowly rolled away again.
The old woman continued.
“She was a lot like you, i think. In her earlier years, of course. Though I guess she never made as far as you did,” The woman's eyes glossed over with unshed tears. “It's a shame she turned out to be such a horrible being,” The woman took a moment, before she began again. “I remember she…knew someone. I forget the name, but oh, did those two love each other dearly,” She sighed. “When Walburga was sold off by her father, they should've stopped meeting. But you know how it is with love.” She gave him a knowing glance and Sirius’ eyes flew wide open.
“Oh yes, I know about your boy.”
“I- no- its-” Sirius stumbled over his sentences, trying to come up with a lie of protection.
“Oh, hush boy. I'm not here to reprimand you. Besides, it's not like you two have been very quiet about it. It's been all over the news a couple dozen times. Now where was i?”
It took Sirius a moment to realize that she was waiting for him to answer.
“My mother…”
“Oh yes, your mother,” She studied the eyeliner around Sirius’ eyes. “She would be so proud of you and your brother if she was still alive.” The woman skirted around the fact that Sirius and Regulus had been the reason for her death. She smiled kindly.
“No. Definitely not,” Sirius snorted. “She couldn't stand the mere sight of us.”
The woman hummed.
“Perhaps. But I think it was just fear.”
“Fear?” Sirius’ eyebrows pinched together.
“Yes, I think she saw you with your boy and thought of the love of her life being beaten past death in front of her. I think she saw you speaking your mind and living your life and saw the consequences that that had brought her. I think she saw Regulus cutting his hair short and refusing to wear dresses and saw your Aunt Cygnisia’s doom all over again. I think she saw the life she wanted and once had and was so scared you’d end up as tortured as she was. At least, that is what I’d like to believe,” She hummed again. “Little does that do. In the end, she became what she had wanted to protect you from.”
Sirius let out a bitter laugh.
“But… But I know how proud she was. That despite the pressure of everything, or your ‘duties’,” She rolled her eyes, “and expectation and despite her contant abuse, that you guys pursued what you guys thought was right, what you wanted. She was so proud of you both. She just didn't show it.”
“Right. So why did she not show it or say she was? Why not?” It was clear Sirius didn't believe a word this woman was saying.
“She was scared. She was scared that you guys weren't following in the horrid steps of the past, because perhaps they were horrid, but they were safe. She was scared for you guys, for everyone you loved and for herself.
“When you were born, the first thing she did was try to drown you. She had passed out after your birth, and the first thing she did when she came to, was try to drown you. I saw the whole thing. She was screaming at everyone how they wouldn't be able to hurt her child, no, not her child. Orion stormed in, barely cast his newly born son a glance, and caught your mother in the Torture Curse. I wanted so desperately to help her, but there was nothing I could do. He tortured her for a week after that. Every so often you would hear her screaming about how no one would touch her son, no one would be able to touch her pure child. Toujours pur.”
“Toujours pur…”
The two of them sat in silence for a little bit.
“So, Sirius, tell me about your life, something about yourself.”
And so Sirius did. He told her everything he could think of from the very first thing he could remember to why he was sitting at this godforsaken bus stop in the first place, and at the end, they were both smiling through their tears. As the sun set, The old woman excused herself.
“It was so lovely to meet you, Sirius.”
“It was lovely to meet you, too.”
The old woman smiled, turned and slowly ambled away.
“Wait!” Sirius called, and she turned around. “You never told me your name.”
“Irma Crabbe.”
He saw something gold turn in her hand and she was gone.
And so, Sirius went home to his husband that night, with an understanding. Not as much of his mother, but of himself.