Part One
Sirius' POV:
Remus, James, and Peter all warned and begged him to try his absolute hardest to stay out of trouble and in Remus' words:
"Just don't be so overdramatic and keep your head down you knob."
So naturally he had placed and enchanted multiple dungbombs to set off during one of the many boring family dinners they'd been having recently. Mother had used the diffindo curse on his ankles, which were one of her favourite spots to hurt as it made the pain go on longer as it hurt to walk after. But Regulus had been clearly trying and failing to contain his obvious amusement which made the punishment worth it as it had become a rare occurrence to see Regulus laugh.
James had begged Effy and Mgonagall so much last year that they had eventually contacted the Ministry who let Remus stay with the Potter family in their cottage over the summer holidays. Sirius felt it was better for Remus to stay with James rather than him being put back into a foster home with strangers who he didn't know while his mum is in hospital with some muggle disease called cancer. So due to the new living arrangements, every night at 8pm they'd all talk to eachother through the magical mirrors that James' Dad had given them.
Today, he excused himself from the dinner table and went into his room to reassure James and Remus that he was okay. He picked up his mirror and called into it "James?". After a few seconds James and Remus appeared on the mirror and a wave of relief rushed through Sirius.
"Hey Pads, sorry we took a sec, Mum made us take our plates to the sink." James explained
"Phew, I thought you guys had forgotten about me. I was devastated." he said with a sarcastic grin.
"Harhar, you should pursue a job as a comedian." Remus said being over sarcastic.
"Yeah actually I was thinking about doing just that the other day, I think I'd be amazing." he replied
"I'm sure you would but anyway, are you okay Sirius?" James interupted Remus and his friendly conversation.
Sirius thought about his burning ankles.
"Yeah, yeah of course I'm all good. How about you guys are you okay?" he answered the question with as much sincerity he could muster.
"We're good." Remus and James both reply in usion.
"That's creepy." He points out.
"Yeah like you guys don't do it all the time. Anyway, please tell me that you took our brilliant advise and have been at least trying to stay out of trouble?" Remus asked with a furrowed brow looking genuinely concerned about him.
Something in his belly warmed at this but he ignored it. "Aw, Moony I'm glad you care about me and yes I've almost entirely followed your fantastic advise." He replies trying to mostly avoid answering the question.
"What did you do?" James asks, worry in his voice.
"Oh don't worry I onky released a few dungbombs. Actually it was quite boring compared to what we've done before. Mum seemed quite angry but Reggie laughed so I don't mind." Sirius rambled to them.
"Sirius!" James gasps
"It's only a week in please, please, please just don't do too much to upset your family." Remus said.
"Fine." Sirius replied.
"Promise us." James asked.
"Fine! My dearest Remus and my belovedJames I promise that I'm going to keep my head down and not try make trouble. Is that suitable for you guys?" Sirius says genuinely glad that they care enough about him to be this worried.
"I believe so." James says.
For the next 20 minutes or so they chat about what they've done day and just laugh at pointless jokes togther.
"Oh yeah guys I might be a bit late talking to you tommorow. Mother Dearest has invited everybody over for dinner and it may last a lot of the night. Just don't be worried if I turn up later than you expected or maybe not at all." Sirius explained calmly.
"Oh yeah sure okay that's all good! If yoh have any worries about anything though please come talk to us we'll keep the mirror on us all night." James replied the worry on his face badly hidden.
It was 8:30pm and the dinner was just dragging on and on. James and Remus were probably already worried about him.
Suddenly, his thoughts were rudely interrupted by his mother Walburga Black.
"I'd like to make a toast to the Dark Lord. May he rise and bring us the power we deserve. To the Dark Lord." she raised her glass.
Sirius looked around half expecting nobody to move. However, he was entirely wrong and everybody sat around the table except for Sirius, His Uncle Alphard, and Regulus raised their glasses to this mysterious dark lord and chanted in unison:
"To the Dark Lord."
Sirius wasn't sure if the adults were all pissed or something because even this seemed a bit extravagant for the Blacks.
He was left to wonder as the guest stayed for another hour or so but because it was Monday tomorrow and most of them had jobs at the ministry, people began to leave. As people began taking it in turns to aparate of their front doorstep, he looked around again and saw lots of Pureblood families, some he recognized as his cousins (Narcissa and Belatrix Black) and others who he had seen around school before.
At the thought of school be remembered he needed to talk to James and Remus. As subtlety as he could, he tried to sneak out of the corridor and towards a different one where the stairs to his room were.
Before he could even walk 5 metres, he's being shoved hardly into his father's study. As he turns around to see who pushed him he feels his wand being snatched out of the back pocket of his robes. Once he has completely turned around, he comes face to face with Belatrix, his Mother, and Lucius Malfoy.
Oh Good God
As they make their way into the study, he prepares himself for punishment for leaving without asking for permission but it never comes. The painful torture dealt by the hands of Belatrix (who everybody in their family admitted was peculiar) is never received.
Instead, Lucius casts a quick muffilato on his study and warches as Walburga walk e up to Sirius. "Sirius my boy!" his mother says whilst embracing him into a stiff and unexpected hug.
Sirius stands still in shock and trys to process what's happening. Before he can push his mother away or maybe even return the hug, his father pulls away from him.
"I know we have treated you harshly since you were sorted into Gryffindor, but we believe this is your opportunity to make it up to us." his mother explained calmy.
There was something sketchy about this. His mother had once been kind when he and Regulus were young but he hadn't shown any affection towards Sirius in years other than to voice his disappointment and to brutally harm. Whatever it is they're going to try make him do he'll refuse, there will a catch that comes with his mother's love.
"What is it that I would need to do?" he asked asked out of curiosity.
"We want you to take the mark." Belatrix squealed and lifted up the robes of her left arm. Black and prominent ink scarred her forearm dancing slowly in the fireplace light. "See?"
No no no no no no no no no no no
"No!" he responded
The mask they had all plastered on their faces faltered a little at his reaction. What? Were they really expecting him to run willingly into their open arms.
"Sirius, don't you understand? It's an honour to be offered this." His mother informed him.
"Well that's a shame because I don't want it." he said stubbornly.
"Ugh! I knew it was a waste of time." Belatrix whined "The Blood-traitors have messed with his brain!"
" Sirius you will be getting the Dark Mark today and there are no exceptions. You are my eldest heir and I expect you to act like it from now on. " Walburga insisted.
"Fuck no! Are you mad?" Sirius exclaimed.
"CRUCIO!" Walburga barked loudly as Sirius collapsed to the ground, clutching at his stomach in a feebel attempt to comfort himself through the agony his was experiencing.
Sirius was obviously experienced in being the victim of Unforgivable Curses, having grown up a member of the Noble Black Family household who still used outdated methods to "control" their offspring. However, this time he felt a pain that was incomparable to any prior experiences. It was like having hot irons placed all over his body that itched in every way possible and yet he wasn't able to pinpoint a certain place in his body where the pain was weaker or even slightly more manageable.
Usually, it was over faster than this; the longest it had lasted for previously had been around 10 seconds according to Regulus who had been a bystander to the event and had later tormented him by saying that he was so weak that he could only last 10 seconds under the curse. When in reality the only reason the curse had ceased was because Sirius has fallen and hit his forehead on the leg of their dining table. In doing so, a cut appeared and blood had trickled down his face, which had caused Walburga to stop the curse and order kreacher to heal Sirius in order to prevent any scar or damage showing. That was one of her unspoken rules:
- Never injure her heirs anywhere that would show on a daily occurrence. She couldn't risk their peers or professors questioning them about multiple scars on their faces or necks.
As a consequence of this "rule", both Sirius and Regulus had multiple harsh scars that ran along their backs and across their shoulders. More recent injuries had more prominent scars and ones that had been distributed further in the past where more faded. Both of the black brothers beared similar painful paintings upon their bodies and yet neither knew the extent of the others scars.
Walburga ran out of energy to control the curse and brought her wand down to beside her hip, rather than continuing to use the cruciatus curse on her heir as it would've wiped both of thier energy.
Sirius' vision cleared and he was taken away from his thoughts as the virtually unbearable pain halted.
"Have you changed your mind yet Sirius?" his biological mother taunted, daring him to disobey her wishes again.
Sirius cleared his throat into his elbow and turned his head to face his mother directly. He plastered what he hoped was a brave look onto his face and stared directly into her dead eyes.
"No." he responded as it was a simple question like "Do you want something to drink?" or "Are you hungry?", and not something that put him at high risk of torture again.
"YOU UNGRATEFUL FUCKING BASTARD!" Lucius bellowed from his position by the closed door. "CRUCIO!"
And that's how Walburga, Belatrix, Lucius, and Sirius spent the next few hours:
- They would ask him wether his answer had changed.
- He would respond "No."
- One of them would cast a cruciatus curse and the process would continue
A short while after it had turned 12am, Sirius' torturers finally gathered that he would not agree to their request yet and so they left him there in Orion's study, unconscious and bleeding by the fireplace.