cry for a shadow

The journey begins

Sirius hurridly crossed his large room and flug open the window. Nimbly he climbed out and on to the roof. The roof of number 12 offered a veiw of the Cresent of tall dark buildings and the small square patch of grass which lay in the centre of the complex. Sirius sat and lent against the chimney breast, thinking. Tomorrow morning at eleven o'clock he would leave this place, he felt as if he was standing on a cliff edge, preparing to jump into the rest of his life.

Since he could remember Sirius had dreamt of leaving number 12, its damp musky walls, the corridors lined with the stuffed heads of house elves and the cavanous rooms that put Sirius in mind of dark bat infested caves, of the type Marty Mig the mad Muggle would explore. Sirius loved the Marty Mig magazines, after stealing one surubtiously during a family outing to diagonally when he was eight he had been hooked, and had spent much of his time navigating the many winding corridors of his house pretending to be an explorer crawling through the curse filled tunnels of the Egyptian toombs.
Ofcourse, that had been untill his mother had discovered the magazine under his pillow. That had been the day Sirius had realised that his parents didn't like muggles. That his parents could be cruel. That his parents... Sirius shivered, despite the warm evening.

He extracted his wand from his pocket and tapped a certain brick in the chimney stack "I solemly sware that I am up to no good" he muttered. The brick vanished. Sirius shoved his hand into the hole and extracted a small leather satchel. Inside was a motley collection of items. A few dusty volumes, 'bowwoed' from his father's study, a diagram of a vespa, some muggle money and a rough leather bound journal. The last few items he needed to pack. The things he'd had to hide, and reason he had learnt how to do a phrase-activated coloportus charm as soon as he had lain hands on a wand.

Settling himself down once more against the chimney he gazed up at the sky. A crecent moon was hanging over the sea of rooftops. He began almost without thought, astronomy was a subject held in highroad by the Blacks and had therefore been drilled into him since early childhood, to name the consolations visible in the gaps between the scudding banks of cloud.

He sighed.... tommorow he would be free. And he settled down into his favourite pass time of imagining life at the castle, he wasn't too keen on the idea of taking up residence in the dungeons (he'd had enough of that living at number 12) but he thought the slytherin common room would atleast be free of elf heads... he hoped. Only one slight twinge marred his musings. He would be leaving Reg behind. He wouldn't be able to protect his younger brother whilst he was away at school, and Sirius knew that Regulus needed protecting, from everything, from everyone.