Prologue
Once upon a time, just a couple of centuries ago, a family lived in the dark castle of Grimmauld. The family Black. There was the stone-faced queen, the distant and cold king, and their two sons, the princes. They looked as though they could be twins, however, they were a year apart. The elder, a rebellious raven-haired, grey-eyed boy, left the castle when he had the chance, to escape his wicked parents, and fled to his best friend in the nearby village. He left behind his younger brother, a clever, quieter boy, who began to follow their parents’ footsteps a little too closely, the whole time missing his brother and what they had.
After their eldest prince left the castle, the royal parents began to tighten the reigns in hopes to keep their new heir as perfect and in line as he could be. They then came to the decision, that he must get married, soon, as they were tired of holding their positions. For the first time ever, their younger son refused. He knew that whomever they picked as a match for him would never be someone he wanted to marry.
And so, he was cursed. The king and queen sought out a witch to aid them. They gave her some roses that grew along the outside walls of their castle. The witch made it so he must pick a wife by the time the roses lost all of their petals, or he would stay in that form. As part of the curse, he was transformed into a beast, with a jet-black mane and steely dark eyes. And, although his parents left him in the castle, they left the servants, who were too transformed.
For four years, the dark castle sat unnoticed and nearly forgotten, left to fall victim to the rose bushes growing up and around the castle, as the beast and the other residents were forced to watch as the beast doomed them all to be stuck in their conditions forevermore.
That is, until someone by the name of James Potter came along.