Chapter 4
"Well I didn't think it would be you." Sirius didn't look up at his cousin's voice.
"What do you want Bella?"
"To think that you stayed and your brother went. Little rebellious Sirius." She continued.
"Bella please, I'm not in the mood."
"You finally made your parents proud." She sat down beside him. Sirius couldn't stop the tears from falling. "Are you... What's wrong little star?" Bellatrix put a hand on his shoulder. "Why are you crying?"
"I fucked up Bella."
"No, you took a step for the cause." It had been a long time since his cousin had hugged him. "You did well."
Crying in his cousins arms like a little kid was not what he ever thought he would be doing, especially on Christmas eve.
"Pull yourself together Sirius, you don't want to be seen like this." She whispered in his ear.
"Sorry." He scrubbed tears out of his eyes with the back of his hand.
"Well, look whose back in the fold." Lucius, of course he was there too.
"Leave us my love, let us have words as a family." Narcissa appeared at her betrothed's side. Lucius left the room, Narcissa knelt in front of Sirius, grasping his hands. "You have one chance, Sirius do not mess this up. Pull yourself together."
"Sorry Cissa."
"Mistake or not, own it like it was intentional." She continued.
"I don't want to spend another Christmas listening to you screaming." Bellatrix added. Narcissa shot her a glare.
"Bella." She warned. "You"re the heir Sirius, you have to play ball."
"I'm worried about-"
"Regulus is fine, he's safe. You're in the mouth of the beast." Narcissa reached out and examined a lock of his shorn hair. "you cannot be yourself, we must be what is expected of us."
"I know."
"Come, let us go to dinner." Narcissa pulled him from the sofa. "do not show them weakness."
Sirius knew it was inevitable that he would mess up and invoke his parents wrath, but miraculously he got through much of Christmas without punishment.
Until the day before he was to go back to hogwarts, his father has mentioned a meeting with the dark lord and Sirius yelled his refusal without thinking about it.
He'd been hit with the cruciartus curse until he fell unconscious, and he was pretty sure his mother had kicked him several times in the face, as he gathered when he examined himself in the mirror.
He was three days late for the start of term, but his mother had written to the school and told them he was sick.
"Your father will apparate you to Hogsmeade, you will walk yourself to the castle from there."
"Yes, mother." He said he finished packing and closed his trunk.
"Sirius, do not disappoint me again." She pushed his chin up with her wand, forcing him to meet her eye.
"I won't mother."
"Good." She lowered her wand. "Go, your father is waiting."